Time

Here's my revelation for the week... learning a language takes time.... I know it sounds so simple, but it is still something I am having to come to terms with. I like to rush things and leave them to the last minute. You can't do that with language learning and it's for me to get used to! Right now, I'm seeing absolutely no progress in my Russian. I can't seem to figure out how things fit together and am basically just learning a few simple greetings and phrases and it's getting me down and making me reconsider why I'm doing such a hard language and not something a little easier like French or Spanish. Then I had a little think about it, I have only been seriously working on Russian for a few weeks. Is that really enough time to have acquainted myself with the language? God no! I can't find the forum post but I vaguely remember it saying that it takes a good 100 hours to get fully acquainted with a language.. and here I am upset that I'm not able to construct sentences and speak after a few weeks! Reality check!

Another thing that I'm having trouble with is learning vocabulary. Should I be learning the dictionary form of words (i.e masc. nom.) or should I learn the form that is in the text I'm reading and not bother thinking about case, gender ect? In Russian I've found that every word changes ALL THE TIME and it really just confuses me :S. I might just try finding the dictionary form and figuring out why the word in the text has changed... maybe it's being too pedantic but I will find out :D

Why reading and listening is important

This link was shared on the LinQ forums about the importance of reading in learning a foreign language and why it should be the focus as opposed to learning grammar by heart: http://www.benikomason.net/

I find this most applicable to my German learning at the moment (since I'm much more capable in that than in Russian right now). I'm learning German at University as well, which is through a grammar based approach and it's alright. A lot of the time though it's just boring. I am at the top of my class, so for me we go through all the content so slowly and I find myself daydreaming out the window and not really learning much at all. Anything we do study as well has be pre-determined by the authors of the book what is interesting and half the time it's really not. I seem to make the most progress in my studies when I'm at home and reading something that interests me. If I'm unsure on a why the structure of a particular sentence is the way it is, I can clarify it instead of spending hours and hours learning tables of grammar.

However, I do not believe that writing and speaking should be disregarded. One of the most helpful things I do is that when I'm well aquainted with the vocabulary of a some content (after much listening, reading, and going throught some flashcards) I write. For me, being able to relate the words I have learned to myself, my friends and my immediate surroundings and then writing it down into my own personal context really solidifies this new information. Read, read, read, listen, listen, listen and relate. If I cannot relate to something (and this goes with anything) I find it hard to understand it.

My new favourite thing to do at LinQ is that when I LingQ a word (because it's unknown to me) I can make little tags for that word or phrase so that when I go into my vocabulary list I can seperate the words into the categories I have chosen. I love learning words in categories. And the great thing is you can make multiple tags for each word. Just more fun organising for me :D. So in Russian if I wanted to learn greetings and goodbyes, or introductions I just click on the tag and I can learn things in one of those categories. Fun!

Thoughts of the day and something I've learned

Today was my first conversation with my tutor at LingQ, Rasana. It was a lot more helpful than I thought. Even though I only knew a few basic phrases and greetings, listening to her saying them helped with my understanding and comprehension so much more than just listening to the same audio multiple times. I think that every opportunity to practice (even if it is only from a small knowledge base) is useful for me right now. Since starting at LingQ I have heard many times about the importance of listening. Even at the beginning, every chance to listen to authentic, natural speaking that I understand is so valuable.

Going through my course at LingQ (which just has very simple dialogues) is providing me with a basis for further study. Like the dialogue I'm linking at the moment has phrases like "I'm going to the postshop" and this has made me think about the verb and how this word relates to this one in that context. It's like, this phrase is in this particular context, now I have to go and apply this to another context i.e. what would I say if my friend is going to cinema instead.

I have been thinking a lot about grammar recently. I understand the importance of learning words (lots and lots of words) but I also need the structure that grammar provides. So I've decided that each week I will choose a particular grammar point which is relevant to the content I'm studying and maybe not learn in by heart but at least get a vague understanding of it. Just so that when I'm doing my own writing, I will think, "ah yes, this verb ends in this... doesn't it have a different conjugation pattern because of it?" (I imagine this more of little alarm bells going off in my head) and then be able to go and clarify it. Slowly over time, as well as building up a vocabulary base, I will also build up some of the important grammar aspects of the language. We will see how successful this is :D

Here we go...

So... I thought it might be fun to start a blog. Everyone else seems to be doing at the moment anyway and who am I but a sheep!

Well from the title you can probably guess that this one is going to be about languages, language learning and my journey/experiences. One day I hope to be able to communicate in multiple languages, hence, possible polyglot.

Currently I am taking German papers at university and learning Russian through Lingq (www.lingq.com). I'd say I'm not quite a beginner in German, however I'm still not very proficient either. Russian... well that's a different. I'm starting from scratch using Lingq system and of course the helpful tutors.

I'm really not very good with goals but I guess I should put some down. At the moment my focus is on Russian but when I start working on German again, I don't know (probably when B semester starts).
Anyway, after about 2 months I'm hoping that my mouth will be used to the strange (from an English speaker perspective) consonant clusters in Russian and after 6 months I will be at least at a Beginner II level... that's the plan anyway. Maybe after a year or so I might be writing this in Russian or German, we'll see about that :D. For the moment I will just have to rant in English....