I've been studying Russian language forever (since I was a kid), and I'm terrible at it. However, a few years ago I was finally able to articulate to myself why it was important to me that I had this language and I was finally able to develop strong intrinsic motivations. I'm long past the time where my mom gives a shit if I know it or not, and her generation of the family never spoke the language anyway.
With my own motivation I made huge gains in the past few years, but now I've kinda hit a wall. Progress is minimal, and it's a little boring. I'm trying to crowdsource some advice.
As I'm writing this I'm realizing my plateau coincided with my work schedule changing and I lost the opportunity to have a weekly Russian conversation with two of my friends.
I've seen some really interesting things on telegram. Unfortunately, most of my study time is while commuting in my car, so podcasts are what's best. I was really into Russian with Max. His stuff is really good. Unfortunately, his recent podcasts are mostly really depressing and/or wander into not very good liberal political analysis that is both boring and dubious. I need a new podcast to hook me.
People on the telegram suggested watching a movie you're really familiar with in the target language. Obvs the best way is conversational connections, but that's not accessible to everyone.
Read and/or listen to a book you liked maybe? You’ll have general understanding of what’s going on even with distractions. Or subtitled movie?
Yes. I definitely need to change gears and use some media that's gonna be a little more relaxing.
Just gotta say keep going. I wanna learn Spanish and Yiddish, but I haven't even started. It's cool that you're on your way, don't sell yourself short on that. My great grandfather never taught my grandpa Russian, despite knowing it well. I wish we kept it going in the fam. Keep going, you are doing something really cool!
I would love to know Yiddish. Part of my need for Russian is to maintain that connection with my Russian-Jewish ancestors that spoke Russian and Yiddish. I've never had a good opportunity to have heavy Yiddish exposure and I'm too far down my Russian rabbit hole to change direction. Russian suits my needs. Most importantly, I decided that I would hate to meet my ancestors in Russian-Jew heaven and not be able to speak to them while we look down on the world and bitch about everything together and do endless toasts where we curse tsar Nicholai. They might prefer Yiddish, but we can do it in Russian.
Thanks for the pep talk.
