Acquiring Russian The Natural Way

In my last post I wrote an interest I've had in Donovan Nagel's approach to language learning. I believe it's not a departure from what I've been doing so far, but an adjustment of my daily activities to better fit my current abilities and goals. I've been piecing together what I believe his method to be from the various articles and videos he has put out.  In an interview he said: Learn a little at a time and use it a lot. Focus on just a handful of new expressions at a time and use them repeatedly until they become habit. It’s much better to master a few things at a time than to try and take in everything at once and learn very little. Speak very early on as much as possible. If you wait until you’re ready you’re wasting time. Use what you know now even if it’s grammatically wrong at first as this is the best way to improve. And on Twitter he wrote: “Successful language learners got there in spite of grammar study, not because of grammar study. Language acquisitio...

I've recently changed how I use Glossika and Speakly. With Glossika I was simply listening to, reading and repeating lots of short sentences. I never recorded myself and never did the typing exercises. It wasn't my intention to try and memorise all these sentences. When I use it I add 5 new sentences and repeat 25 old sentences, but I've often taken long breaks. That means I'm currently behind on 858 sentence reviews.  However when I think about some of my speaking experiences over the past couple of weeks, as well as what I've been learning from  Mezzofanti Guild  I wonder if I should take it more seriously. I think I now have enough vocabulary and basic understanding of Russian that it's beneficial (and easier) for me to get some of these sentences or lexical chunks into my long term memory. Or better said to get these sentences or lexical chunks ingrained in my mind. The aim is not just to remember or recall after all, the aim is to think in Russian. There...

I've started reading one of Olly Richard's books:  101 Conversations in Simple Russian . Supposedly this book is aimed at A2 level learners / speakers so that might indicate my current level.  For context I have 'learned' 947 words in the Speakly app (at 1000 I will have finished section Intermediate I after completing  Beginner I - III) and I have 2372 words marked as know in LingQ  (which includes all kinds of declensions and conjugations). I'm only at conversation number 6 but so far I feel comfortable in reading and understanding each conversation. I'm finding that there are sometimes 1 to 5 words in each that are new to me, and usually those are the words that are provided with a translation. (This book only provides translations for a couple of key words or phrases, everything else is in Russian). I'm reading it before going to sleep so that I'm not looking at a screen late at night. I have to be disciplined and not look up the couple of words I d...

I found a list of 750 Russian / English cognates to quickly boost your vocabulary. I probably know a lot of these already but it will be useful to have a quick look over these for any I wasn't aware of. In order to get the words list you need to sign up to newsletter but you don't have to buy anything. 750 Russian / English Cognates This list was created by Ari who has a YouTube channel dedicated to learning Russian:  Learn The Russian Language

This morning I had an hour of conversation practice with my tutor and I think somewhere between 75 - 90% of it was conducted in Russian. It's easy to overestimate these things so let's go with the lower number. Yes it was was a simple conversation about travel, going to a restaurant with friends, enjoying city life and such topics, but I was talking about my real life. My tutor would ask me questions to find out more and I was able to answer and provide more insight, then ask relevant questions about their life. A real back and forth conversation. I've had short conversations with native speakers in real life as well as on language exchange apps but this  felt like a milestone.

I've been behind on these updates, I'll keep this one short. As was the case in May I've been busy with a lot of things and have not been able to dedicate as much time to Russian as I wanted. But I did start practicing speaking in Russian with my tutor and I once again visited a country that has Russian speakers and had a few short interactions with native speakers. I've also been more conscious of using certain grammar concepts while speaking. In July I should have a more regular schedule and I aim to get back to regular studying. June 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 11:00 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 hours Vocabulary and Sentences: 2:38 hours Reading with Audio: 1:18 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:00 hours Active Study: 1:20 hours Personal Lessons: 0:45 minutes Conversation Practice: 2:15 hours Total: 17:41 hours Daily Average: 0:13 minutes May 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 11:00 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 ho...