16 days of Russian

This post on languagesurfer.com gives an insight into what I've been attempting. I was very excited to see the post, and to be able to chat in the comments with my own thoughts. It gave me a bit of a boost! I've also been listening to some of the podcasts over at actualfluency.com, and have loved finding Ellen Jovin's blog. The more I delve into language learning, the more I understand that it's not just about the language(s), but is a real journey into how we learn, motivation, communication, education, fun, cultures, and so much more. It's also a bit of a roller-coaster ride, from 'yay, I can understand and translate a whole paragraph' to 'why can't I remember this word I've seen on memrise 50 times before?!'.

It's sometimes difficult to forget it's a real journey and we don't have to rush to try to get to the end, to reach fluency, or whatever the goal may be. It's about the process.

So,all that being said how have I been doing? Well, I've taken on board little bits from blog posts I've read and podcasts I've listened to. I've been working on getting up early (still a work in progress!), using exercise in so much that I've been taking walks while listening to Michel Thomas (yes, my 'not buying any more Russian materials promise' hasn't been going very well!). It's probably a bit unnerving for anyone who gets too close...they can hear me muttering in Russian and still 'trying' to do a rolled r! I usually listen for 20-30 minutes, and do the same lesson twice a day. I find this works better for me as I'm quite a slow learner (I'll blame that on my ageing brain!). I've really been enjoying the MT course so far. I then spend some time adding the any new words to my anki flashcards, and doing a review. I also do memrise daily, will listen to some Russian radio (although I'm probably only fitting 20 minutes in at the moment) and do a 10-15 minute transcribing exercise (I really enjoy doing these). So I've kind of tweaked the 21 day language blast a little, but it's really given me the motivation to carry on. My Russian is still very much at a very basic level, as I'm  missing a lot of the connecting words (or rather finding it tough to remember), and the speed to put it all together. I've also done my best to avoid much grammar! I'll be addressing this when my 21 days are up, and I  have a Russian grammar book ready to go!

How is your language learning journey going?