Acquiring Russian The Natural Way

  I've been behind on these updates, I'll keep this one short. 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 visited a country that has Russian speakers and had a few short interactions. May 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 hours Conversation Practice: 2:15 hours Total: 17:41 hours Daily Average: 0:34 minutes April 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 14:22 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 hours Vocabulary and Sentences: 0:08 hours Reading with Audio: 1:18 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:00 hours Active Study: 4:38 hours Personal Lessons: 0:45 hours Conversation Practice: 0:45 hours Total: 21:11 hours Daily Average:...

I was on the train yesterday when a Russian lady sat down next to me and started talking with her mother on the phone. I was able to listen to her side of the conversation for about 10 minutes. I had a vague understanding of what they were talking about; birthdays, children, something about work, free time and weekends.  It was a good test of my ability to understand natural Russian. I was able to understand complete short sentences and the overall topic of conversation. But it definitely shows how much of the true meaning of language is in that final 10 - 20% of the vocabulary and grammar.  It was a good bit of positive feedback.

I spent a week in a country that has quite a few Russian speakers and managed to have a few short conversations with people from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Azerbaijan. I also overheard several Russian conversations in public places. While the conversations weren't in depth it was great to converse with 'native' speakers. I was complemented on my accent and was taken seriously as a learner, not someone who has just learned to say привет and cпасибо. Just some more positive feedback and motivational fuel to keep me going.

April 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 14:22 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 hours Vocabulary and Sentences: 0:08 minutes Reading with Audio: 1:18 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:00 hours Active Study: 4:38 hours Personal Lessons: 0:45 minutes Conversation Practice: 0:45 minutes Total: 21:11 hours Daily Average: 0:41 minutes March 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 24:59 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 hours Vocabulary and Sentences: 1:04 hours Reading with Audio: 2:10 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:15 minutes Active Study: 0:47 minutes Personal Lessons: 4:30 hours Conversation Practice: 0:45 minutes Total: 34:30 hours Daily Average: 1:06 hours February 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 25:53 hours Active watching or listening: 0:29 hours Vocabulary and Sentences: 2:33 hours Reading with Audio: 2:14 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:44 minutes Active Study: 2:52 hours Personal Lessons: 2:15 hours Total: 37:02 hours Daily Average: ...

  The notable thing to mention this week is that I've found a language exchange partner to practice with once per week. We speak about topics such as travel, food and cooking, work, learning, music and other hobbies. We alternate between English and Russian. It's definitely the case that I can understand more than I can speak. And when I do speak my grammar is atrocious. But I believe it will be a good way to get better at recalling my recognised vocabulary. March 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 24:59 hours Active watching or listening: 0:00 hours Vocabulary and Sentences: 1:04 hours Reading with Audio: 2:10 hours Reading with no Audio: 0:15 minutes Active Study: 0:47 minutes Personal Lessons: 4:30 hours Conversation Practice: 0:45 minutes Total: 34:30 hours Daily Average: 1:06 hours February 2023 Statistics Passive watching and listening: 25:53 hours Active watching or listening: 0:29 hours Vocabulary and Sentences: 2:33 hours Reading with Audio: 2:14 hours Rea...

Last night I had another dream in which I was speaking in Russian. As before I was limited by my real life abilities. So it was a very short conversation. Does anyone else dream about speaking the language they are learning?

  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...