Acquiring Russian The Natural Way

I'm mostly back on track with my Russian acquisition journey. It's been a strange year with inconsistent study. On a positive note I've had some good interactions with native Russian speakers which is very motivating. I want to push hard this year in order to get to a comfortable conversational level. December 2024 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 18:37 hours Active watching or listening: 0:11 minutes Vocabulary and Sentences: 0:00 minutes Reading with Audio: 04:29 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:00 hours Active Study: 4:45 hours Tutor Lessons (Conversation Practice): 0:00 hours Free Conversation Practice: 0:00 minutes Games: 0:00 Total: 28:02 hours Daily Average: 0:56 hours November 2024 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 18:27 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 minutes Vocabulary and Sentences: 0:00 minutes Reading with Audio: 12:52 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:15 hours Active Study: 0:00 hours Tutor Lessons (Conversation Practice): 0:00 hours Fre...

The days are growing darker and I've been putting more time in to my Russian acquisition project, albeit the most low effort actions. Listening to Speakly monologues and listening and repeating along with Glossika. I need to get back to regular conversation practice but at least I'm putting in the time again after not doing anything in October. I should mention that I had a couple of short interactions with Russian speakers which was fun but I was definitely rusty.    November 2024 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 18:27 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 minutes Vocabulary and Sentences: 0:00 minutes Reading with Audio: 12:52 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:15 hours Active Study: 0:00 hours Tutor Lessons (Conversation Practice): 0:00 hours Free Conversation Practice: 0:00 minutes Games: 0:00 Total: 31:34 hours Daily Average: 1:03 hours October 2024 Statistics N/A September 2024 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 5:20 hours Active watching or listeni...

  Well it's been another poor couple of months for my language studies. But I have a reason and I'm hopeful that I'm about to turn a corner. Since the start of the year I've been doing some work related studying which took up a lot of time that I would normally dedicate to Russian. In October I realised that I was close to finishing the hardest parts of the courses I was taking, so I decided to just focus on that in order to get it out of the way as soon as possible. While I still have some more work to do it's not as urgent.  Getting that out of the way now means I now have more time and mental energy available for Russian. It did mean that I didn't dedicate any time to studying the language. My only exposure being some small interactions and stumbling upon Russian language online. My ability to speak was definitely affected and to a lesser extend my comprehension ability. I'm determined to have a strong finish to 2024. October 2024 Statistics N/A September...

I've been attending a Russian language group in my city over the past few weeks. It attracts a mixture of learners and speakers and it's a great environment to practice my listening and speaking skills. Usually there are 15 to 20 people attending and people naturally split into small group of 3 to 5 people. There's no set agenda, people just talk about what interests them. The most recent meeting lasted about 3 and a half hours and I was immersed in Russian 90% of the time. I'm listening a lot more than I'm speaking and I sometimes need to ask for a translation to English to make sure I'm still following the conversation. But I feel comfortable with ambiguity, and usually have a good understanding of what each person is saying. Examples of topics discussed include where to find particular types of restaurants in the city, politics and culture in various countries, work and hobbies. It's very motivating to be able to take part in a conversation, even with my ...

A great article with lots of advice about language learning. It closely matches my personal experience so far which will help to keep me motivated to continue with the way that I'm learning Russian. The main points that are covered in the article. So, here are the most important lessons I've learned: Think in ideas, not words  "A mediocre workout done religiously outperforms a perfect workout never done" Going abroad is a force multiplier: if you're not making progress at home, you won't magically begin improving just because you uproot your life You'll overestimate how much you need to know to begin doing cool things in a language and underestimate the gap between that point and fluency You will learn as well as you need to learn to do what your lifestyle demands of you, no better or worse; if you’re stuck, light a fire somewhere  Achieving fluency means you know one more language; you'll be the same person you are now, for better and worse, plus one ...

  In my last report I wrote about how I had a big drop in my average study time due to various life circumstances. Half-way through August I started rededicating myself to this acquisition journey. There's nothing much to say other than that I've regained my motivation and I'm get back on track.  August 2024 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 7:07 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 minutes Vocabulary and Sentences: 0:00 minutes Reading with Audio: 3:00 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:00 hours Active Study: 1:32 hours Tutor Lessons (Conversation Practice): 0:00 hours Free Conversation Practice: 2:00 minutes Games: 0:00 Total: 13:40 hours Daily Average: 0:26 hours July 2024 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 3:10 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 minutes Vocabulary and Sentences: 0:00 minutes Reading with Audio: 0:27 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:00 hours Active Study: 1:20 hours Tutor Lessons (Conversation Practice): 0:00 ho...