'Back in the USSR': meer van dat!

Hé, de documentairereeks Back in the USSR zit er al op. Slechts vier afleveringen. Maar dan wel vier goeie. Geen gezwets en samen haring eten en vodka drinken, maar duidende, vrij objectieve journalistiek waar een mens nog wat van opsteekt.
En Canvas heeft al een opvolger geprogrammeerd: 'Last days of the USSR', documentaire van Jean-Charles Deniau en Sergey Kostin. Ben benieuwd.

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 :-)

Nieuwe reeks op Canvas: Back in the USSR

Vanaf morgen een - hopelijk verrijkende - nieuwe reeks, op Canvas: Back in the USSR
Met Stefan Blommaert en Jan Balliauw, toch alvast twee mogelijke kwaliteitsgaranties.
Zeker uit te proberen, zou ik zeggen.

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.