Teach myself Russian.

the basic notes, at least!!

OK so it was a week later than the due-date but I have renewed it and will be setting a new goal: to finish all the exercises that I’ve skipped along the way by the time it’s due back again (4 November).

I kinda gave up when it got to the bit about participles cos… it’s just mad and I don’t have my cases down yet (which I hope will be fixed a bit by working through the exercises!)

The author has been very diligent about putting in all the random quirks and non-regular formations for everything, which has left me thinking… well… it’s just a very difficult, very complicated language. I am still stumped about how anyone is supposed to make a basic correct sentence when there are so many variables in terms of declension. So the next stage will be to isolate the sentence patterns that I do understand and can use accurately and practice practice practice!

It’s also shown me that I need a really good course with lots of listening and examples of sentences in order to absorb some of the usual daily patterns. At the end of the day that seems easier than learning each element in exhaustive detail.

Off to start the exercises…

(and not have to renew it again!)

By my calculations, that leaves me about 8 hours study time at the current rate, and there are (haha) 11 chapters left.

Oh. Oh well, worth a try! Maybe I can squeeze in a few extra minutes here and there!

I know, I know, I have like a million textbooks, but this was from the library (free!) and is in English and is really well set out, with enough new vocabulary to be practical and split into points that are of digestable length.

Spent about an hour last night learning about the accusative, some of which I knew, but also some new things about the case difference between doing something at a place and going to a place, and using the accusative with time expressions etc.

Also the point of having it from the library is that I can’t linger over it too much; hopefully they’ll let me renew it once though, as it’s worth doing in detail and doing some of the nitty-gritty exercises. But yeh, a couple of months with this and I hope I’ll feel like I’m really making progress.

I’m really not keen on going to a class again after the German experience, so have been looking into private tutors – I reckon an hour or so every fortnight would keep me focused and also give me the chance to learn what I want to at my own pace – without breaking the bank. It’s just a case of committing myself to it.

The GCSE Russian specification… actually it seems like there’s a lot in there. Not something you could rush through.

Will have a flick through and see how much it overlaps with my current coursebook – and check out the vocab section too, which might give me some structure to work from. Must not get too bogged down in analysing though!!

I want to make a blog of my pictures from my Russia trip with the captions in Russian… would be a good simple place to start, and fun!

want to get myself on a Russian course in the Autumn. It’s all about finding the right one, finding a teacher I can get on with, need to think about whether to join a class (which hasn’t always worked well in the past) or to go for one-on-one… And also need to get up-to-date with all the stuff in my books that I know I understand but am not sure I can use.

But now is the time (well, soon, anyway!)

Still reviewing a lot of stuff but have re-started at least… hope this sticks this time (cos once I’m down there on the floor with my textbooks, I do totally love it…) Going to try leaving the books out somewhere rather than packing them neatly away so it seems easier to carry on next time I have some spare time – that has been working with the Chinese.

Yay. It’s so much fun!

this really kick-arse advanced textbook on Amazon today….

but figure I should finish the textbooks I have first! Then maybe I will reward myself (could be part of next month’s book-buying day, or the month after, if I get my act together!! – now there’s an incentive!)