yes! smashed vocab 12-14!

just did flash card tests of the latest vocab words flash cards 12, 13 and 14 and smashed them.  i missed like one answer (right now).  guess that means i have to start some new flash cards.  i also need to review 1-11 so i don't lose it.  this is very exciting!  having a vocab of 70 russian words is a very nice start.

70 vocab words!

So I have now created e-flash cards for 70 vocab words!  I pretty much have the alphabet down and I've memorized probably at least 40 different words.  Unfortunately I haven't made much progress on grammar and I haven't really begun to do much speaking, listening, writing or reading in Russian.  Maybe I need a children's grammar book.  I dunno.  I am making steady progress on the flash cards though.  They are great and convenient!  I like to spend the odd 2-5 minutes here and there but it would be nice to devote a whole day to memorizing vocab.  I mean it would be boring as fuck, but the long term pay off would be huge.

PROGRESS UPDATE

so i just created vocab flash cards 10 & 11.  I don't perfectly know everything on the alphabet cards and 1-9 but i will continue to review them this week and so far i am probably around 80%.  I guess I need to expand my practice beyond flash cards.  Tapes, studying grammar... some day hopefully skype conversations!

view these new flash cards and the rest I've made at :

http://quizlet.com/zak_young9

omg!

omg!  russian vocab 6 & 7 are so hard!!!

http://quizlet.com/46982633/russian-vocab-6-flash-cards/

http://quizlet.com/46982676/russian-vocab-7-flash-cards/

I guess i just have to keep reviewing these.  And also to review the preceding ones less frequently, so they remain in my mind.  It's silly to study more than one language at once I think.  Better to just focus on one until I learn it properly.  I don't know how many words I should try to learn a day.  I think this method is best though.  Most words learned.  I wonder how long until I can skype?  A month or two at least.  Probably longer.  Can I learn 20 words a day?  100?  100 would require full time study.  I could do it.  Fluency in a month.  What a challenge!  I don't think I want to devote that much time to this project.  Maybe 10 a day?  What about grammar.  I need to learn grammar.  Conjugating and other stuff.  Apparently word order doesn't matter much in Russian?  How silly is that.  How is that silly.  Silly how that is.  that silly is how.  Word order is important in English.  Maybe I should study chess also!  Studying is fun.  Why was I not a professional student!  Or a professor.  Le sigh.

progress report :

I have created 6 alphabet flash card sets (5 letters each) and 8 vocab sets (5 words each) for a total of 30 letters and 40 words.  I'm still working on learning the information in the sets but I am definitely making progress.  all but 3 of these cards were made today.  this method really works for me.  i'm making progress on the alphabet and progress on my vocabulary.  the nice thing is it pronounces the words too.  I still have a long way to go of course.  I feel like if I kept up the intensive pace which I have had for the last 12 hours I could definitely be fluent in six months or so.  What an incredible thing it would be to learn six or seven languages!

progress update : 3 am

I now have 5 flash cards for vocab and two flash cards for the alphabet and am making solid progress on them.  this is such a great way of learning!  another cool thing to do is use google translates sound function to know how the words sound as well as how they are spelled.  it's just great to make study progress and actively learn. i think i will focus on russian until i have fluency before moving on to another language.  what should my next language be?  Latin?  French, which I already speak somewhat?  Mandarin, which is oh so hard?  German, so I can read Mises' work in the origin?  There are oh-so many possibilities!

vocab 6-10

http://quizlet.com/46797707/flashcards

So far I am doing well on these 5 vocab words except c and co.  I dunno why the book grouped these two different words together.  Any ideas internet?  But it's nice to make progress.  Once I have c and CO down I will review this set less frequently and move on to the next one.  I haven't set any specific goals yet in terms of words to learn a day.  I'm also not sure how much time I should devote to this method of learning, vs tapes, vs learning grammar.  Is there anything else?  Hopefully I will be able to speak soon!  It will probably take at least a year with my leisurely study habits and busy schedule. Flash cards are really key if there is some specific piece of information you must acquire!

the cyrllic alphabet

Of course learning the cyrllic alphabet and the sounds that all the letters make is a critical starting point for your (and my!) journey to understanding Russian.  I have pretty much got these five letters figured out.

http://quizlet.com/46980487/flashcards

So I guess I should start on the next five.  Some of the Russian letters are the same but most are weird.  Why can't the stupid russians just use the right letters for the right sounds?  It's probably because it's so cold in Siberia.  Some people ask me why I want to learn Russian and I just tell them since Putin is so set on conquering the world I might as well be able to negotiate our surrender when his troops invade.

I really think flash cards are a great way to force specific knowledge into your head.  Hopefully I continue with my study of Russian!  I guess it would help if I spent more time studying the language and less time telling you all about my studies.  If you have an interest in Russian I say you join me in my efforts to learn it.  Learning a foreign language is great for your mind!  Plus then once you know it you can curse people out and they don't even know what you are saying.

EDIT :

I created a second set of flash cards, viewable here :

http://quizlet.com/46981768/alphabet-2-flash-cards/

for the next 5 letters.  I'll get these damn Russian dogs and their silly language yet!

I am doing pretty good in my study of these so far!  This flash card method is the bomb!

Learning Russian

I am trying to teach myself Russian.  So far I have listened to some tapes and I engaged the services of two tutors for a while but I ended that.  I hired them online and they taught me over skype.  It was pretty cool and if I start doing better financially I might do it again.  One step I am taking now is constructing some flash cards.  I also downloaded a bunch of e-books and tapes.  I mean purchased legally.

Here is my first set of flash cards, 1-5 of the most common words in Russian.  I got them from this book 10,000 Russian words in frequency order.

http://quizlet.com/46796739/russian-vocab-1-flash-cards/

I think flash cards are a decent way to learn.  Targetted focused learning.  I really like the Brainscape approach as well!  I quite enjoy learning new languages.  Recently I deactivated facebook.  I spend a lot of time online so I guess I should spend it doing more productive things than just scrolling newsfeeds and getting into arguments with people.

I plan to document my progress learning Russian.  So far I am fairly novice.  I know a few words.  Maybe 20?  25?  And I have a rough idea about grammar.  I have a long way to go!  I want to learn a lot of different languages.  I think I will focus on Russian first.  I also need to learn French, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic... and plenty others.  What else should I learn aside from languages?  Economics of course.  History I suppose.  There are so many things to learn!

Recently I did tape one of Pimsleur's something and something Russian.  Speak and Learn?  Listen and Speak and Learn?  These things have the silliest titles.  That's all for now.  Zak Out.

P.S. I have more vocab sets and will be posting them in subsequent posts.  I've got another one for the alphabet sounds.