Friday 11 December 2015

A very belated update

I had no idea it had been so long since my last update. I have been busy at my Russian classes, and I've also attended two polyglot workshops in London, spent an evening learning Dutch with citylit, taken a Portuguese class on italki (as well as several Russian ones), attended the Language show live and meet up afterwards, got married and honeymooned in Rome, visited Yorkshire and Northumberland where I walked part of Hadrian's wall and spent a week in beautiful Brugge! Phew...

A selection of my Russian books!

I am just finishing up with my Russian class, and I'm ready for a break. It is a very grammar intensive class, and I know thoughts are mixed about whether you need to study grammar separately or at all when studying a language. To be honest I've pretty much ignored Russian grammar until now. I found the majority of it looked so overwhelming and scary that I was happy just to pretend it didn't exist! However, I really haven't got any choice in the class but to look at it, and I'm finding the teachers explanations and examples so helpful. I understand a lot of it, even if I can't apply it all yet. It's starting to take the fear and mystery out of it, which is a very good thing!

I do think that I've overloaded though. Having 'real life' lessons, which come with so much self study and homework plus my italki sessions has burnt me out a bit. I'm ready for a break for language learning and studying for a while. I don't think I'm going to sign up for the next set of lessons, but will take a break from formal learning and go over what we've studied at home, and at my own pace, to consolidate it. Hopefully I'll be refreshed and ready for more structured learning again in the Spring.

I also have lots of other plans for next year including a first time visit to Portugal, possibly taking part in the charity London to Brighton walk, volunteering with my eldest before she goes to Uni, perhaps camping (Cornwall?Yorkshire? not sure yet) and I'd love to squeeze in a trip to Copenhagen as well.  I'm also thinking of heading to St Petersburg to study Russian with Exlinguo. I met some of the teachers from Exlinguo at the Language live show, and they were great to talk to and gave me lots of info. I even had a brief exchange in Russian! They have lots of great reviews, and it looks like a really interesting experience with language lessons and cultural excursions.

This will be my last update this year, so I'll wish you all Поздравляю с Рождеством! :)

2 comments:

  1. Wow- you've been busy, Emma :) Congratulations on your marriage, how exciting!!! I hope your end-of-the-year festivities are going well and you're getting ready for the new year. Looking forward already to your 2016 language learning posts after the grammar has had a chance to sink in.

    С новым годом!

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  2. Nice Post! If you are in spain and don't know spanish. You must learn is online. Learning spanish becomes easy with Bazilinga.

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