New journey

[Irina Ponomareva]

I have phoned a linguistic school in Saratov for German, one of those I haven't worked with yet. They have no German groups, but it's always possible to study individually. If everything goes according to plan, I'll start next week, either on Tuesday or on Friday. Feeling excited - can't wait to start! How to juggle it all, I have no idea, but I guess I'll have to.

[Lingostan]

Will you be taking away some time from Chinese or will you able to manage this new language without taking away anything from the others you are currently learning?

[Irina Ponomareva]

I hope to be able to combine all three.

[Lingostan]

Have you ever tried in reading a short story you know by heart in each language you know or learn? I mean without the parellel text. I did this with "The black cat", it helped me a lot to memorize new words, but on the other hand it did not make me so lazy like I would have been with a parallel text.

[Irina Ponomareva]

I'm more into novels. When I like the book, I re-read it so many times that at some point I really know parts of it by heart. I find short stories less interesting.

When I read Jane Eyre for the first time in English, the childhood memories of the same book read in Russian helped me a lot, of course, and it was the same with The Gadfly, but in those days I never thought of placing two books side by side. Bilingual reading is a relaively recent discovery for me. I'm past that stage with Italian, but I'm going to do it with German and other European languages, since I know now how well it works.

I wouldn't call having to read the same text twice "being lazy".

[Lingostan]

I wouldn't call having to read the same text twice "being lazy".

no, I mean that only when you read line by line (with parallel text) without the need to check a dictonary, instead if you have just one text you have always more mental work to perform.

[Irina Ponomareva]

But if you check every word in a dictionary, it will take ages. And with unabridged books there is still more than enough mental work to do, even if you are supported by the base language. Analyzing how the grammar translates, for one.

Of course, with graded readers using bilingual reading would be an overkill - those books are too easy as they are. But if you would like to read real unsimplified stuff when you are half-way through A2, things can get tricky. You either spend 3/4 of your time looking up words in the dictionary, get bored, lose motivation and give up, or try to figure out things from the context and get fed up with the fact that you understand too little. Most people get bored by that too. I'm one of the lucky exceptions, but I really can't afford to spend 22 years on each language on my wish list, because no one lives that long. So I'm going to stick to my newly found shortcut.

Really, you should try it instead of arguing. It's magical.

[Laury Burr]

Viel Gluck Irina!

[Irina Ponomareva]

Danke!

I have had five lessons so far. The teacher is amazed at how quickly I get it all. It's true that each new language is easier to learn than the previous one... well, except Chinese.

[Laury Burr]

iI'm impressed. I found German more difficult than French - still do. By contrast I'm finding Italian quite easy (but then I already speak French and some Spanish). I was surprised the language school in Saratov didn't cater for German - as I understand there's a large German population across the river in Engels, (albeit fewer than before the war) and there's a new church mainly for German Catholics (iirc) in Saratov.

[Irina Ponomareva]

It does. The problem is, there are not enough people to form a group. Chinese is a lot more popular.

[Laury Burr]

Ah, understood. Of course those who already speak German don't need Lingostan (unlerss they're linguistically curious) and I guess not many Russian speakers are interested in making contact with them.

[Irina Ponomareva]

I'm not talking about Lingostan here. That will come later, when I reach at least A2. I'm talking about a brick and mortar school in Saratov.