TAC 2014 - Dr. House RU, DE

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This year's TAC - 2014

[flag=]ru[/flag] I'd like to reach an intermediate level in Russian this year and it's not because of Sochi Winter Olympics, but rather for wanting to learn this language for so long. I'd love to apply some of the methods I read about and see what happens. Russian is a relatively easy language and there are only a few things I should worry about and which could take some effort to master. And they are the stress and the pronunciation as whole. Wouldn't like to have the annoying Czech accent when speaking Russian.

[flag=]de[/flag] I'd like to level up in German, because it's my first foreign language and it's a shame I still can't use it effortlessly. Especially when Raimund (my brother's father) is around. I'd also like to surpass my mother's German, which shouldn't be that hard.
German is an intermediate language, but it's only matter of practice.

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[flag=]ru[/flag]

I downloaded HP1 in Russian both the pdf file and the audio book, so I can get accustomed to the unpredictable Russian phonology. However I still need to wait a month or so, before I can buy myself a tablet computer to use it, because my PC had died on me some time ago.

[flag=]de[/flag]

I use my old book from high school to review on some old stuff that'd slipped my mind and keep looking up words in my dictionaries. I also watch ZDF, 3sat and Das Erste from time to time.


So overall I haven't fully started yet, but I'm looking forward to.

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I'm going to buy a new phone in order to advance in my TAC 2014.

I've also implemented Dutch ([flag=]nl[/flag]) in this year's challenge, but unlike German or Russian, I'm only aiming for a A1 in this funny sounding language.

My friend Martin also intends to start learning Russian and he even got us a native speaker to be our tutor, so I'm really excited to start.

I'll keep you posted on my (our) progress.

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If you're already at an intermediate level in German, have you thought of using lang exchanges to utilise what you know and grow? I find they're a great way to improve your speaking and listening skills. They're not the greatest for learning new vocab and grammar, though for vocab a lot depends on the topics you chat about.

Anyway, some online sites I've used are http://www.conversationexchange.com and http://www.sharedtalk.com. I've always found the first one to be more helpful. (It could also be my bias against Rosetta Stone and anything done by them! But I digress...) With ConversationExchange you can find lang partners for email, Skype/Hangouts/etc., or in-person.

Good luck.

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Thanks for the advice. I'll look into it.

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I reviewed some French, but now I'm going to fully concentrate on Russian, until I reach fluency.
My guesstimate ranges from 6 to 10 months in total. I'll be using a mix of a much better developed spaced repetition and the help of our Russian friend. After I reach basic fluency, I'll move on to learn other languages such as German, Mandarin Chinese and Italian.

[dEhiN]

Good luck!

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Thank you very much!!

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On my way to fluency.

[dEhiN]

How's your Russian coming along? What do you use to study?

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No problems encountered so far. The pronunciation was tough for me when I was still going to high school and my Ukrainian friend tried to teach me some Russian, but with a lot of practice I'm getting better at putting my tongue in the right position to differentiate between the soft/hard sounds.

I use various resources including my Russian teacher Anna, who gives me the extra vocabulary I need.
She only uses the spoken Russian with us, so I need to check up on the right ortography when I get home, because I don't always get it right. For example she taught me the word тетрадка, but I wrote it down as титратка.

Words like Торонто or хорошо have three different vowel sounds in them and it's sometimes not so easy for an untrained ear to spot them.

I did Pimsleur 1, but I don't like it anymore, because there's too much unnecessary ballast in the recordings. (Imagine yourself sitting in a café in Moscow next to a Russian lady. You want to start a conversation... etc.)

I want to support the improved spaced repetition method with reading the Russian newspapers, already supplemented in Windows 8 and maybe watching some Russian TV channels.

I need to review the previous month and hopefully in next two months, I'll be able to finish my TAC successfully.

[dEhiN]

Nice! Do you have a specific goal for the end of your TAC? For example, to be at a particular level? Or to be able to read a newspaper or a specific book?

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Basic fluency is basically what I'm aiming for. Once I'm at that point, I can easily go on about learning it to a much profound level or to learn another language instead.

[dEhiN]

Basic fluency is basically what I'm aiming for. Once I'm at that point, I can easily go on about learning it to a muchmore (or "much more")profound level or to learn another language instead.

Sounds good; keep it up!

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Oh, thanks for correcting that typo. I'm thinking about adding some Brazilian Portuguese as well, but I'm not 100% positive.

[dEhiN]

Oh, thanks for correcting that typo. I'm thinking about adding some Brazilian Portuguese as well, but I'm not 100% positive.

Go for it! Brazilian Portuguese is a lot of fun!

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I wish it was that easy. I need to improve both my Spanish and German and keep going for the fluency in Russian. It's just so tempting to add more languages to my list. O tempo não está bom hoje. Haha.
Well the TAC for 2015 is going to be loaded with languages I guess.

Right now I can talk to a native German speaker at home, because my brother's dad came to visit us for a week. It's a great practice opportunity. (e.g. The other day we watched The Bourne's Supremacy in German and it was cool. )

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I wish it was that easy. I need to improve both my Spanish and German and keep going for the fluency in Russian. It's just so tempting to add more languages to my list. O tempo não está bom hoje. Haha.

Unless you meant to say "the time isn't right today", I think agora 'now' is probably a better word to use. I would probably say agora, o tempo não está bom / o tempo não está bom agora. The first way sounds more correct to my ears, but I think both ways work. To be honest, I would actually probably say something quite different; something more like eu não tenho o tempo agora 'I don't have the time right now'.

Well the TAC for 2015 is going to be loaded with languages I guess.

Welcome to my world!

Right now I can talk to a native German speaker at home, because my brother's dad came to visit us for a week. It's a great practice opportunity. (e.g. The other day we watched The Bourne's Supremacy in German and it was cool. )

That's really cool! How are you faring with your brother's dad? Can you understand him well and respond back? Also, in English the movie title doesn't have the possessive s - The Bourne Supremacy.

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I wish it was that easy. I need to improve both my Spanish and German and keep going for the fluency in Russian. It's just so tempting to add more languages to my list. O tempo não está bom hoje. Haha.

Unless you meant to say "the time isn't right today", I think agora 'now' is probably a better word to use. I would probably say agora, o tempo não está bom / o tempo não está bom agora. The first way sounds more correct to my ears, but I think both ways work. To be honest, I would actually probably say something quite different; something more like eu não tenho o tempo agora 'I don't have the time right now'.

Well the TAC for 2015 is going to be loaded with languages I guess.

Welcome to my world!

Right now I can talk to a native German speaker at home, because my brother's dad came to visit us for a week. It's a great practice opportunity. (e.g. The other day we watched The Bourne's Supremacy in German and it was cool. )

That's really cool! How are you faring with your brother's dad? Can you understand him well and respond back? Also, in English the movie title doesn't have the possessive s - The Bourne Supremacy.

I just wanted to say, that the weather was not nice today, cause it wasn't. I can communicate in German easily, but sometimes I choke, because of the vocabulary I lack and I often make grammar mistakes. Other than that I could survive in Germany if I went there for a few weeks on vacation.

The Bourne Supremacy - got it.

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I'm here to close down this thread ans sum up my progress for this year's TAC.

[flag=]ru[/flag] So far I spent about two months learning this language, though I didn't put as much effort in it. My pronunciation got better, my passive understanding improved and I can hold a conversation in it. I focused more on the speaking skill, but I gotta say I can read the alphabet much faster than ever before. I'm glad I decided to take this language on, because it's so awesome and I'd love to reach fluency in it someday. It's definitely my biggest leap in this year's challenge.

[flag=]de[/flag] No progress made here. I mean I probably learned a few new words and I could test my German twice with two different native speakers, but still it's nothing much. I don't wanna give up that easily though.

[flag=]fr[/flag] Sacrebleu. Je peux dire quelque chose en francais, mais mon Dieu, c'est terrible.

[flag=]ar[/flag] [flag=]ja[/flag] [flag=]zh[/flag] Just dabbled with these like many times before.

[flag=]nl[/flag] Hoe gaat het met u? Nothing else.