1000 Hours of Russian in (close to) 1000 days

 

I recently passed 1000 hours of Russian in almost as many days (944 to be exact). I would have liked to be much further along my Russian acquisition journey, but I guess it's an achievement to have stuck with it consistently over this length of time. As much as I enjoy Russian, I have other interests that are a bigger priority for me.

This is the first time I've attempted to acquire a new language so in the beginning there was a lot of trial and error with different approaches and apps. Broadly speaking I've been following a Comprehensible Input / Mass Immersion / Refold approach, but the exact activities varied until I settled on what I found most enjoyable and useful. 

In hindsight I would do some things differently, but only to be more efficient rather than to employ a completely different method or strategy.

Going forward I really want to increase the amount of time spent reading, studying grammar and on conversation practice (the latter is slowly happening as part of my Comprehensible Input 1-to-1 lessons). 

A few days ago I met a Russian speaker in the pub and I had a short exchange, enough for them to understand that I knew more than just "Привет, как дела?". The fact that they took me seriously enough to speak to me in Russian, to check what I was able to understand, was a motivating moment. We switched to English quickly but I'll count it as a small achievement.

As always, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments.

August 2020 to February 2023 Statistics

Passive watching and listening: 666:19 hours
Active watching or listening: 55:56 hours
Vocabulary and Sentences: 89:46 hours
Reading with Audio: 74:15 hours
Reading with no Audio: 2:41 hours
Active Study: 100:12 hours
Personal Lessons: 11:45 hours
Total: 1000:55 hours
Daily Average: 1:03 hours

*Most of my study time happens from Monday to Friday. On those days my exposure to Russian is probably around 1:30 to 1:45 hours.

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