Absenteeism

Last night I went through lesson 5. I was in my first year of Russian evening class when we learned this chapter and as I already told you I was pregnant at the time. At Easter I gave birth to a lovely daughter. During the holidays... that was convenient, as I wasn't going to miss Russian classes then. But then my eldest daughter got one of these childhood diseases and my husband urgently needed to be operated on his arm. On top of a few weeks old baby who needed to be breastfed every few hours. Who makes it to Russian evening class then? I didn't. After a few weeks, I sent a panicky mail to my teacher stating that I thought I would never be able to catch up anymore. I have an experienced teacher :-) and she calmly proposed me just to come to one of the following lessons to find out whether that was the case. This did the trick...
Yet, lesson 5 never really made it to my memory. Going to a shop, ordering things and paying for it in rubles and kopeks... it will never be my strongest skill. A plea for going to the classes as much as possible.
And in the meantime, the countdown goes on. 5 lessons out of 24 and less than two weeks to go. Doesn't look good, does it?

Русский экспресс

I did it! Yesterday evening at about 6.30 pm, I took my Russian studybook and rehearsed 3 ypoka. Taking into account that the book contains 24 lessons, it is not exactly something to be really proud of. I like some basic statistics and they tell me that I did 1/8 of the lessons. Which doesn't necessarily mean 1/8 of the study material and certainly not 1/8 of the time necessary to go through the whole book, as the first chapters start with cute, little sentences as Kто это? Что это? I feel some nostalgia when thinking of these first lessons. They look so easy now. Yet, at the time we were struggling with the cyrillic alphabet. It struck me yesterday evening that despite the holiday period, the cyrillic alphabet was still fresh in my mind. Don't ask me to have a short conversation in Russian, but I do master the cyrillic alphabet. Which is something, isn't it?

Anyway, for those interested, the studybook we used was Русский экспресс 1. I consider it a very good book. As of September, we will start with Русский экспресс 2. I'm a bit thrilled when I think about the new book. I am one of those fossils who adore to leaf through books in real, often a bit stuffy bookshops and I am indeed looking forward to holding a new, virgin (without my scribbled notes) studybook in my hands.

Less than four weeks to go...

Less than four weeks to go and I will start my fourth year studying Russian in evening school. What once started a bit impulsively (I was on maternity leave and was looking for some food for the brains so I registered in a Russian course), is getting more and more serious. After three years, it is no longer just about learning a language but also about learning more about the culture.

Anyway, last year I started rehearsing what we had learned the years before about NOW! Will I find the self-discipline this year again?