It's this time of the year

It's this time of the year: I am studying Russian. Next week we have the final test. And if all goes well, that was it for my fifth year then. It wasn't my most fruitful year, I was too busy with other things. Yet, I'm happy not to have given up. There is always the possibility to give it a new impetus if the time turns out to be (more) right.




In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures I took in Ukraine. Early June, I visited Kiev and the Crimea peninsula. A must! And yes, there was the opportunity to speak Russian. As it turned out, in Crimea they don't speak Ukrainian, only Russian. Even education is there in Russian, as I was told by our local guide. Add to your destination list, Russian language lover!

Russian for beginners and travelers

Hello again. Long time not been here. Was there more pain than pleasure in learning Russian the last few weeks? Luckily not. I nicely continued going to evening class, did my test before Easter holiday and am now ready to start the last trimester. Although I lacked a bit of enthusiasm and commitment to really improve my Russian knowledge, all things considered. One evening per week is just not sufficient and I didn't find the time to do some extras.

I managed to watch the interesting tv-series Rusland voor beginners though. It was a Belgian Dutch-language series but as Lena De Winne, Russian wife of astronaut Frank De Winne, was the central figure of the series (she travelled each episode with a Belgian personality through Russia, focusing on themes as religion, ecology, economy, arts, etc.), most of the conversations and interviews were either in English or in Russian. So, if this series will ever be released on DVD, I will certainly let you know here - it is also worthwhile watching it if you do not know the Dutch language.

And concerning this upcoming trimester of my fifth year of evening school... I participated a bit half-heartedly in the lessons lately, yes, but I have a good motivation to start focusing again: in a few weeks, I will go to Ukraine. Okay, Russian is not the first language in Ukraine but I imagine that some knowledge of the Russian language will certainly help during the trip. So, time to rehearse the Russian for travelers vocabulary...

Busy busy busy

I have been absent here for too long. Life is full of interesting and beautiful things and I tend to get distracted :-)

But I haven't forgotten about Russian. I went to Russian class almost every week (good girl, I am!). We also had a conversation evening in our school, very nicely named (in Dutch): Taalmaatje, which means something like 'language buddy'. Очень интересно! My co-students and me met a nice Ukrainian lady and a nice bilingual Bulgarian lady, who both talked very patiently with us in Russian that evening.

And maybe you remember that last year I did a course of Davidsfonds - Universiteit Vrije Tijd on Russian history. Well, I liked it so much that I of course registered for the new course on Russian literature this year. Also taught in a very captivating manner, this time by Professor Waegemans, another Belgian authority in the field.

Inspired by the course, I started reading 'Dead souls' of Gogol, but I will have to put it aside for a few days now because we have a Russian test next week - just a matter of priorities :-)

Memory loss

Now that we focus on conversation in our Russian class, it becomes really obvious how much one forgets. Basic sentences we learned in our first year Russian seem to be forgotten. It is embarrassing.

I must admit that I am worried about my memory loss. Most women turning 40 (my case in a few  months) mainly worry about the loss of their 'looks'. Of course I am not completely insensitive to my physical ageing either, but even more I worry about a possible loss of memory.

Why is it more difficult to remember Russian words at my age than it would have been when I was 15? Is it correct to think that it is more difficult now, by the way. And if yes, what's the reason? Is it just age? Do you lose brain cells or do they die? Or is it just that more capacity of your brain has been used, the memory disk is almost full and your brain becomes more selective?

Being a hands-on person, I am not going to try to give you an answer to the why-questions above, but you can expect references to information on memory techniques from me. I already like to refer to the book S.O.S. Taal from Bernard & Lisa Lernout (in Dutch, I don't think it has been translated).

More tips and info on memory techniques will follow... if I don't forget :-)

Too much food for the brain

So we took a good start with our Russian class. We have a new teacher this year which corresponds to a new style. She is a native speaker and we will talk talk talk this year. That's good. I think we are all ready for it. We have seen most of the basic grammar and vocabulary the previous years; the foundations have been laid and we can now start putting the acquired knowledge into practice.

There is a little nostalgia sometimes. Our previous teacher is teaching the first year Russian on the same evening in the classroom next to ours. So we peep into the classroom during the перерыв and remember the days where we were now learning the cyrillic alphabet. We started the first lessons with about 25 students. Only 9 of us persevered. Well done, classmates :-)

In the meantime, I am wondering whether I should quickly start learning some Spanish as I will be going to Bilbao next weekend. I think I will drop the idea. First of all, Bilbao is located in the Basque part of Spain and many people speak Euskera there, not Spanish. Next to that, I am in the middle of a lot of training at work: project management, activity based management and that sort of topics; quite different I know but there is a limit to how much new information someone can absorb. Can food for the brain also be overdone? Is there something as a Brain Mass Index?

Anyway, I decided that this weekend at least I will give my brains a little rest and instead will shamelessly 'hang out' with my little daughters - read: dress up as a princess or a witch (the latter being mostly my role), paint your face in all colours, watch 'Oggy and the cockroaches', 'Looney tunes' and other sorts of other crappy tv entertainment (and laugh like crazy), jump on the trampoline, colour Top model and Disney drawings,...

First schoolday

Classes started again last week, on 1 September to be precise. My daughters had an excellent first schoolday, happy to see all their friends again. And mummy had the same experience in the evening :-)


Yes, we had our first Russian lesson last week. I wasn't really looking forward to it. One reason was that I had finished the German course only a few days before. I had really enjoyed the course but it was also very intensive and I felt as if I could use a break. But no no, I was going to jump from one language into another.

Another reason why I was reluctant to go, was that I had started wondering why I was putting all this time and effort in a language that I - let's be honest - still do not speak after 4 years of evening school and that I do not need in my life at all, not for private reasons, not for professional reasons.

But I went to that first lesson after all and hey, almost all classmates of last year were there and it was good to see each other again. And by the end of the lesson, I had this feeling of 'come on, I will go for it another year'. But I have a goal! I must open my mouth this year. I am one of these people who are reluctant to speak a language as long as they can make an utter fool of themselves.

So, be my witness: I will have conversations, I will communicate in Russian by the end of the year! Otherwise I quit.

Deutsch Deutsch Deutsch - piece of cake

www.toonpool.com

If this were Twitter, I wouldn't have the feeling I had to add anything to the title (and could go to bed now).
But this is a blog, so a few words...

I'm completely immersed in German. Hausaufgaben jeden Abend... I have been preparing my second oral presentation tonight. Next week we also have our final exam already.


There are definitely pro's about this concentrated way of learning a language (every morning for three weeks). My level is improving at lightning speed. I already watched a few good movies in German last week and I started reading a detective in German yesterday, all very doable.

Of course, it helps that German is so similar to my Dutch and it turns out that once you have learned a language before (I learnt German during secondary school), you don't forget it - you just have to find it back in your memory somewhere and then upgrade it.

When I think about how I struggle with Russian sometimes, this German course is like a piece of cake. It gives my selfconfidence a boost :-)

(Maybe I shouldn't say this before I have succeeded in the exam... the bear and the skin, you know... which makes me decide to go to bed now so that I can study tomorrow morning... so: Gute Nacht!)

Hip hip... 1st anniversary of 'The pleasure and pain of studying Russian'

One year ago, on 9 August 2010, I bravely posted my first little text on my brand new blog.

The goal then was to narrate about my 4th year Russian in evening school and whether I would make it, once more, also for that fourth year. I succeeded :-)

Mission accomplished. Will I archive/delete this blog?

 Nooooo.... In the meantime, I got the hang of writing for my own little blog. I enjoy it too much to stop.

The topic of this blog also broadened. We went to Saint Petersburg with our class for instance, which led to some extra posts. I also added these extra pages with links to related websites and with books, films, documentaries I enjoyed.

Last year, I also discovered some other interesting forums and blogs on the web. You find them under My blog list or on my page Also on the www. I am sure these lists will only grow in the future. Just as the whole process of learning a language is one of GROWTH!

http://www.zazzle.com/

Competition is tough, dear Russian

I had the intention to do some self-study Russian during my vacation. I have interesting material: another coursebook than the one we use (to compare), a course on CD (to improve my speaking skills), Russian easy reader books (to finally start reading a complete book in Russian; I would be utterly proud). But none of these plans materialised. Competition is tough. There was the Santa Montefiori novel during my holiday. And I did some other reading and dvd watching as well. You find the books and dvd's I enjoyed on my page I can recommend.... I am currently reading The Master and Margarita of Mikhail Bulgakov, very intriguing. And July is only about 4 weeks after all...

I love scanning covers...

My plans won't materialise in August either. Do you remember my flirting with the other language in February, when I prepared for the placement test of a German course? Well, the real cheating will start as of next Monday. For three weeks, I will have German classes every morning and the course ends with a test so I will really have to focus on German the coming weeks. Wish me good luck... (although, now that I am learning a language with 6 cases, I surely can handle one with only 4, right?)

Graphic designers: don't mirror the R!

True, the Я gives you the idea that you are reading Russian.
It is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet.
It even is a Russian word, meaning 'I'.

Я люблю тебя.
I love you.

BUT you pronounce it as 'ya'.

Wild Yaussia.
Doesn't make sense, does it?

The version I have at home.
It is perfectly clear that it is about Russia.
No need to try to emphasise this
by - wrongly - using the Я.

If you really want to replace the R by the Russian equivalent, it becomes:
Wild Pussia
which is probably not what you had in mind either.


Suggestion: find a catchy title and stick to that!

My life well planned

Back from a kids vacation with lots of swimming, pony riding, boat driving, playground hanging. I took some Russian stuff with me but ended reading a Santa Montefiori novel, the perfect holiday read. It was also time for some reflection on life: imagine an evening of staring at the lake when the kids are finally asleep and you have no cleaning to do because that's included in the price of the little house you rented and you have no laundry to do because there is no washing machine so the only thing you can do is - finally - relax, an 'activity' you are not used to at all.

It is about a year ago that I started with this blog. How did it start? During a lunch break one of my colleagues said: 'Do you know that you can create a blog in 5 minutes?' That same day this blog 'The pleasure and pain of studying Russian' was born. If all my decisions were made so quickly... But it turned out to be 'my thing'; one year later I can say that I have found my rhythm and my style with this blog. Although I admit that I often stretch the topic of studying Russian to learning about the Russian culture.

And how did I start with the studying of Russian?
I was pregnant of my second daughter. After our first daughter was born, my husband and me decided to take each a 'kids free' evening per week. So I used that evening to go to the gym, as you are supposed to do when your body has been stretched in all directions by a pregnancy. And of course, I didn't like it because I have never been into sports.
So when I was pregnant the second time, I decided to do something I liked during my precious me-time. I don't remember the whole thinking process that led to studying Russian. I remember that I went back to my time as a student (I chose languages and literature) and once I had decided to study a language again, I did some reading about languages in general and narrowed the choice down to one of the official languages of the United Nations (don't ask me why). Knowing already English and French, it had to be Spanish, Arabic, Russian or Chinese. Some further reading and I made my choice: I would go for Russian, which seemed a good compromise between a little exotic and not awfully difficult.

I never questioned the method I would use. It was clear to me I would follow lessons in a school. It suits my personality: it is structured, measureable, and it has a social aspect. It is a mystery to me how people can learn a language in self-study: especially for a difficult language such as Russian, I need the peer pressure and the set time schedule to keep going.
I also would never learn a language without learning to write it, especially not a language that uses another alphabet. Although you seem to come to quick results with these learning systems that transliterate into the Latin alphabet, the day you go to Russia you will be able to chat with the natives but you won't be able to read the menu in a restaurant, the directions in the metro, the bills they present you. And to me a decent study of a language also includes the analysis of the grammar; otherwise your level will never be lifted above the 'learn Russian in x weeks' level.
But hey, this is only my view. And of course, I admire people who pick up a language just by hearing it. Actually, I get more and more convinced that you should do both in parallel. The perfect recipe: a stay in Russia - you get courses in the morning, discover the country in the afternoon and stay with a Russian family in the evening. One day, when my lovely daughters are older...

Studying Russian and having kids

Having an interest in another culture and having kids, to what degree can you reconcile that? Am I (de)forming my kids? And on the other side, is it possible to learn about another culture when having little kids?

My daughters play with Russian dolls since I'm back from Saint Petersburg - yet not more than with Playmobil and Barbie and Polly Pocket. And thanks to Dora the Explorer (Даша-следопыт), they already knew there is more 'out there'.

They know the plot of Anastasia by heart - yet for them she is just another princess and as it is a widely distributed movie I guess they are far from the only ones who have seen the movie about a hundred times.

They are used to a mother who 'goes to school' on Thursday evening and who disappears upstairs now and then, to study Russian - and other mothers go to fitness or ceramics class or the choir or whatever.

They had to miss me for a few days when I went to Saint Petersburg. They clearly survived that.

And hey, I don't dress them in Russian folklore costumes or I don't make them listen to Russian music all day long, I don't even play the balalaika for them :-)

From my side, learning Russian and learning about the Russian culture will have to be done mainly 'behind the desk', I'm afraid. I am happy with my books, documentaries, little trips to Amsterdam and slightly longer trip to Saint Petersburg. But I am also looking forward to the day my kids will be old enough so that I can do the Trans Siberian Express or the Wolga Cruise or whatever, to learn more IRL about that rich, vast country the size of a continent, and to finally immerse myself in the Russian language.

In the meantime, let's print another colour drawing of 'ugly Rasputin' and 'Anastasia with her nice dress'...

For absolute beginners... with some humour

The test and the teacher

www.vonniescookies.com

I've just done my written test. It wasn't perfect, but it will do. I didn't study enough, that's for sure. But it is also about priorities and it is good enough as it is. Next week, we will have the oral test. And the week after, the traditional end-of-schoolyear dinner. It will also be a bit of a farewell dinner for our teacher, who shared our concerns and silly jokes for the last four years with a lot of patience and laughter. Thank you, dear teacher, if you read this :-)

We are all a bit worried about next year, as we will have a native speaker as a teacher then. But she joined us to Saint Petersburg and she speaks Dutch as well so if the worst comes to the worst, she can translate. Although, I remember from the years where I studied for my teacher certificate (about 20 years ago, aargh, time goes quick), that you should teach without translating - yeah right! I never became a teacher by the way and maybe views have changed over those past 20 years.

Anyway, now that my test is over, I feel relax. Time for a good glass of wine and to put my feet up and hang in the sofa....

To memorise or not to memorise

There is this issue of whether memorising is an effective way of studying a language or not.

Our teacher tends to ask us sometimes to memorise parts of texts. Leading to us students mumbling Russian phrases in the car, the metro, the living room, the garden - eyes focused on a blank spot in the distance, a bit out of breath, saying 'nananaaaa' when the words escape us, glancing at our paper and then raising our voices again for the next pair of sentences...

It feels a bit childish at least; back to the days where you had to learn your new year's letter, ready for this little pat on the back and the 'bravo!' of parents and grandparents. (Which is what we do: we applaud for each other when we make it to the last sentence of the text in class, with a little irony in our claps maybe but still we do it!)

It's discouraging as well, especially when the texts are long. There is this other childish feeling: I will never be able to remember this whole text! OK, there we found a solution: a paragraph a day... Some of our class even make drawings to remember the order of the events.

And is it also useful? I think it is. Depending on the texts of course. It should be common phrases, used daily. Phrases that are supposed to stay in your memory like annoying tunes. How wonderful then that I still remember the sentences: "Скоро я дошёл до места. Я подошёл к дому, постучал в двер и услышал знакомый голос: "Войдите!" Я вошёл в дом. "Как хорошо, что ты пришёл", - сказал мой друг."

(...verbs of movement indeed...)

Saint Petersburg: the countdown

Wow, long time not been here. There's more excuses than another language apparently. Such as (very valid) having two kids who expect birthday parties and need summer clothes, (also valid) a job with deadlines and a boss with quality expectations.

Anyway, I kept up with my Russian - managed to do the interimary tests and we are heading towards the end of the schoolyear, already. Wasn't it the goal of this blog? To see how I should make it through this schoolyear? It's too early to say that I made it to the end (one more final exam to do) but it looks like I'll get there.

I am proud to see what level of texts we can already read. The times of rehearsing our first sentences such as 'меня зовут Сабин' and 'это карандаш' are long behind us. We read texts about Saint Petersburg and Moscow, about Siberia, culturally, economically, ecologically. If I buy a newspaper or a magazine, I am able to decipher more than the date now; I can grab the topic and the main ideas of the articles. Proud proud proud :-)

Peterhof

Less proud I am of the fact that I am still not able to really speak it. But hey, soon we will have the opportunity to practise. Because yes, it finally materialised - we are going to Saint Petersburg! The teacher managed to make a group of 20 students (out of different Russian classes) and it is booked now. Mid June, we will be in Saint Petersburg, enjoying the White Nights. The programme of the trip looks promising: a city tour and a visit to the Hermitage (of course), but also Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo. The countdown can start!

The other language

Dear Russian,

I admit. I wasn't there for you for a while. I even have been flirting with another language: German is her name. Let me explain.
I'm working in an international environment and German is the third working language (after English and French). Therefore, I will do a summer course German at work in August. Last week, I had a placement test and yes, I prepared myself quite thoroughly for it: went through the whole grammar and some vocabulary. With good result: they put me in level 6 (the highest level): yihaa. Call me result-oriented. Anyway, if all goes well this summer, German will be covered in my internal curriculum at work.
In the meantime, now that the placement test is behind me, I'm all yours again.

Your beloved

Hahahaaaa....

A sigh of relief, including some triumph as well! The first test of this schoolyear is behind me and it went okay. It is not going to be the test of my life but it will be sufficient to continue. I have the excuse of not having had much time to study the last few days (new job, ill kids). Do I need an excuse? Anyway, this is not the place to analyse my procrastrination behaviour. And certainly not the time. Right now, I want to just enjoy the fact that I can now lay back for a while. Hahahaaa. And enjoy other stuff...
For instance: a course on Russian history. In four Saturday mornings, we are guided through Russian history. (For the Belgians: organised by Davidsfonds, taught by Wim Coudenys, very well done!!).
And also: the book 'Montagne Russe' by Pieter Waterdrinker (also for the Dutch-speaking among us, short stories).
And even: hanging in the sofa and be braindead. It can be sooooo gooood.

A few weeks later...

Things are getting worse. Last week I was absent for the first time. It makes it only worse to get back on track. After autumn holiday we will probably have a test; it is going to be a disaster. But what is worse: it seems I've lost the pleasure - only the pains are left. Ooohhh... But no, seriously: I remember reading books and watching dvd's on Russia last year and enjoying it! I remember having the intention of making this blog a lively one, with links to books and other stuff I would have discovered in the meantime. Nothing of all that. There are other things going on in my life that ask too much time. And to make studying Russian a pleasure, one should make it a priority in one's life. Maybe I should skip a year and then go back. Give myself a break. The only reason for not doing this, is that my classmates are a bunch of funny, nice people! (time for a group hug now :-))

Interim evaluation

So after one month of Russian evening classes, I can conclude that:
- studying every Tuesday is not going to work,
- the facts are that I studied once (the first lesson) and made my homework twice (out of three times),
- my Russian knowledge is not going to improve enormously that way.
But the good news is...
I spent last Sunday afternoon studying Russian in a very concentrated, devoted, structured way and caught up with the grammar we've seen so far. One more session like this and I will have caught up with the texts and listening exercises as well.
Hurray and goodnight!!