ahka | challanging myself -- learning languages

It slowed down again at work and I am bored out of my mind. I have been trying to challenge myself with various activities outside of work (mostly when I am driving). For example, I am not very good at learning languages. To say the truth, I am pretty impaired in that department. I learned English only because I had no way out. It took very long to actually start speaking, writing and understanding it for me, I would say 5 or 6 years living in the US.

My ears are not very good to pick the sounds and my voice is not coordinated with my ears. So, pronunciation is always a struggle for me. Over the years I got more confident in my language skills and now I don’t even pay attention if I speak in English or Russian. So, that proved that it is possible to learn language only one has to be very patient and spend a lot of time.

So, I decided to learn other languages to see if I could do it again. So, at first I studied some Portuguese before we went to Brazil, just to have some basics. I got CDs at the library and it was Pimsleur Approach. It actually worked very well for me because they repeated phrases many times and broke words into very clear sounds. It also helped that Portuguese has similar pronunciation as Russian. As slow as I am in remembering things and pronouncing words, I got hang of many handy phrases that really helped us while we were in Brazil.

Then, I was thinking that learning Spanish is always nice, since I do want to visit Spain and Argentina some day. So, I checked out CDs at the library Learning Spanish in Traffic. At first I was somewhat frustrated because I couldn’t hear the exact sounds of some wards and there were not too many repetition but they had a lot of songs that got stuck in my head after listening same part over and over again. Michael also enjoyed learning some of those phrases and songs in Spanis. I did not prolong these CDs and when was time to return it to the Library I just returned it back.

Just recently, I was trying to learn reading Hebrew and found this amazing website that really helped me remember most of the Alef Bet http://www.cartoonhebrew.com/index.php?step=alef I can even try to read some basic stuff and Hebrew letters don’t look like hieroglyphics anymore.

So, that moved me in the direction of trying to learn Hebrew, why not? So, I ordered Pimsleur Hebrew CDs at the library and have been listening to them for a month now. I got so much progress! I have learned so many phrases that I can say and that I can understand now. I really like their approach of repetition in not so boring way. I guess this approach is right for slow learners like I am. So, if you ever want to learn some language, check out Pimsleur Approach.

I took a CD with tourist phrases and could not keep up with it. They repeat one phrase one time and move on. That didn’t stick in my head and just made me more self-conscious that I am too slow to hear and repeat it. I just need to start applying my knowledge somewhere, so I don’t forget it.