Comments for Bored Strakhir-Statistiker

Comment on Pimsleur German Completed! by Austin

Austin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:30:57 +0000

I’ve done about 40 lessons in French with Pimsleur, but I have more recently focused on learning Russian after living there for a summer. I have found an effective method of acquiring language with Pimsleur is to combine it with something that focuses more on unconscious acquirement like Rosetta Stone, where you won’t see or hear a word of English the entire time. For grammar and additional vocabulary, I have been using New Penguin’s Russian for Beginners book, which, on my trip to Russia, is what the mormons use to help acquire the language. Finally, I listen to Russian radio online all the time and try to watch the occasional Russian movie with subtitles. At first, it’s all jibberish, but slowly the pieces are falling into place.

Comment on RRRRRRRRRRR… The Language Learning Obstacle Anki Ain’t Gonna Help With by Motolingua

Motolingua — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:40:14 +0000

Hah, this is funny. I have the opposite problem.

I grew up in South India (English is one of my native languages). I then lived for 11 years in California. And if I’m not paying attention to my speech, I *still* trill my r’s. After *11* years of being surrounded by people who can’t do alveolar trills. Some Americans ask me if I’m an American who grew up in Scotland!!

I also speak fluent French. When I lived in France, I had to work really really hard to learn the uvular r (r grasseyé). And I still have trouble using it at times, reverting to my “native” trilled r when not watchful.

I speak intermediate-level Spanish. But here, with my guard completely down, I sound exactly like a Mexican. Trilled ‘r’ and all. Many Mexicans believe that I’m one of them — I kinda look like them, and when I speak Spanish, the sounds come out effortlessly like theirs…

As for German, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to use the French r or the Spanish r. I use either one, and nobody seems to care. But I’m a low-intermediate in German…

Good luck with the rolled ‘r’. Have you tried saying “trrrrr…”, starting off with a heavily retroflex ‘t’?

Comment on Pimsleur German Completed! by Steve

Steve — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:23:49 +0000

Any chance you would share your pimsleur-derived vocabulary list?

This is the ONE thing that drives me insane about pimsleur: it TRAINS you to mispronounce words by not providing a written transcript or, at least, a list of new vocabulary words per lesson. So you inevitably find you have misheard something (and in Russian that is really, really easy) and been practicing it INCORRECTLY for days, weeks, months or longer, before you find out (usually when you *finally* see the cyrillic spelling) that something is terribly wrong in your pronounciation.

Comment on Pimsleur German Completed! by Deadeye

Deadeye — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:48:33 +0000

i am still learning by pimsleur approach and i use my mobile german translator when he says starnge word immediately i find it on my phone dictionary so i am learning not only audio but written and spoken german as well !!!!

Comment on A Pimsleur Spanish Speed Demon by Jacob Lumbroso

Jacob Lumbroso — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:33:39 +0000

I love Pimsleur; I used it for Hebrew and French. I think the critical thing to remember that podcasts and other approaches should be viewed as the entry point to get to the starting gates of learning Spanish or any language. A one on one dialog is I think ideal but not always realistic given time constraints or location. That being said Pimsleur definitely an excellent starting point.

Comment on Using Anki in Language Classes by Jon

Jon — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:26:24 +0000

Hey any chance i could get a copy of your spanish deck please.
thanks
jon

Comment on Pimsleur German Completed! by Eric

Eric — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:17:05 +0000

For years, I tried to learn Russian by reading books. I have ‘em all. I would get mired down with grammar that didn’t make sense, and put them down for a year, for 20 some-odd years. I finally went with the Pimsleur 1-3 Russian course. W O W ! ! I now realize that I have been trying to learn the language upside down. Now that I have a basic vocabulary and have a “feel” of how the language flows, all that seemingly insurmountable grammar makes sense now. I feel I’m making exponential progress now. I talk-up Pimsluer every chance I get.

Comment on Not Your Bubbe’s Flashcards by Yelena

Yelena — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:16:36 +0000

Yankl, oyb du darfst emetsn mit vemen tsu redn Rusish, mir kenen gefinen a sho do un dortn tsu shmuesn!

Comment on Using Anki in Language Classes by boredstrakhirstatistiker

boredstrakhirstatistiker — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:22:45 +0000

it should do that automatically, though with the default settings it’ll wait 24 hours between opposite cards. if it’s not creating 2 cards with each “fact” you may have to adjust the card models in “model properties”.

Comment on Using Anki in Language Classes by Warner Bass aka ישׂראל

Warner Bass aka ישׂראל — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:51:38 +0000

is there a way to make my deck display both front to back and back to front while quizzing me? or to i have to make new entries?