Acquiring Russian: December Report

December Statistics

Passive watching and listening: 37:25 hours (Mostly listening)
Active watching: 3:46 hours (Mostly comprehensible input)
Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Sentences: 13:42 hours (Anki)
Active Study: 1:14 minutes (Grammar)
Total: 56:09 hours

December was a good month for me although my routine was interrupted. On the 23rd of December I finished my work contract and wasn't behind the laptop as much, which meant that my passive immersions was almost reduced to zero. The one thing that stayed consistent was studying the Anki decks. 

Initially I was adding 10 new words per day but I found that I was struggling with retention and had to repeat words over and over again to get them to stick. Since then I've dropped down to 7 new words which seems more manageable. I wouldn't mind spending more time with Anki but I want to be efficient. I'm still revising Xefjord's 200 words and phrases which is now down to less than 2 minutes a day.  

I randomly found an app (Pollygot) that involves spelling out words from a selection of letters within 6 minutes. It was a fun distraction and the guy who made it is very convincing in his reasoning for making the app. Unfortunately my phone broke so I haven't used it for a couple of weeks.

I started studying Russian grammar for the first time. Reading from the New Russian Penguin Course amongst other sources. But my understanding is still very basic.

Yesterday I also started using Glossika.com since it is for sale at a discount the moment. I'm only using it in Listening mode, although I repeat the sentences out loud after hearing them.

My biggest failure so far is still the relatively small amount of active immersion that I'm doing. Matt from Refold.la recommends several hours of active immersion per day and it's something I've struggled with because I don't usually watch shows in my spare time. However I've noticed that I find it easier to watch Inna's Comprehensible Input videos for longer periods of time. Occasionally I've watched content where I can understand many words and can pick up the general gist of a conversation. So I know that the work I've done so far has been useful, I just need to commit to the next step otherwise all this effort to prime myself will go to waste.



You can find my study log here: Google Doc: Russian Study Log

December Statistics

Passive watching and listening: 37:25 hours (Mostly listening)
Active watching: 3:46 hours (Mostly comprehensible input)
Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Sentences: 13:42 hours (Anki)
Active Study: 1:14 minutes (Grammar)
Total: 56:09 hours

Anki 1000 Words
New: 575, 57.5%
Young: 185, 18.5%
Mature: 81, 8.1%
Suspended: 159, 15.9% (I deliberately suspend words that are too easy, my guess a third to half of these)

November Statistics

Passive watching and listening: 58:58 hours (Mostly listening)
Active watching: 3:07 hours (Mostly comprehensible input)
Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Sentences: 8:01 hours (Anki)
Reading with audio: 0:30 minutes (Dialogue)
Total: 70:36 hours

October

Passive watching and listening: 35:53 hours
Active watching: 1:47  hours
Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Sentences: 8:03 hours
Reading with audio: 7:29 minutes
Total: 42:51 hours

September

Passive watching and listening: 11:27 hours
Active watching: 1:14 hours
Vocabulary: 3:56 hours
Total: 16:37 hours

August

Passive watching and listening: 31:28 hours
Active watching: 2:32 hours
Vocabulary: 1:38 hours
Total: 35:38 hours

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