mostly russian;

WordBrewery is great for improving your vocabulary.  It gives you a random sentence at either beginner, intermediate, advanced or master level, and you can make lists of words or sentences that you’d like to learn.   It includes the following languages:

Spanish

English

Chinese

Arabic

Portuguese

Russian

Japanese

German

French

Italian

Polish

Ukrainian

Korean

Serbian (Latin)

Serbian (Cryillic)

Hungarian

Greek

Swedish

aster - áстра

carnation - гвозди́ка

cherry-tree - ви́шня

chrysanthemum - хризантéма

cornflower - василёк

dandelion - одувáнчик

dahlia - георги́н

daisy - ромáшка

daffodil - нарци́сс

forget-me-not - незабýдка

geranium - герáнь

hyacinth - гиаци́нт

honeysuckle - жи́молость

iris - и́рис

lavender - лавáнда

lilac - сирéнь

lily - ли́лия

lily-of-the-valley - лáндыш

orchid - орхидéя

pansies - аню́тины глáзки

peony - пиóн

poppy - мак

rose - рóза

rosebud - бутóн рóзы

sunflower - подсóлнечник

tulip - тюльпáн

violet - фиáлка

flower - цветóк

flower bouquet - букéт цветóв

petal - лепестóк

meadow - луг

pot flower - кóмнатный цветóк

to plant - сажáть

So idk I’ve wanted to write a rant/discussion about being intermediate for a while now so yeah here we go. I hope people can relate.

Defining “Intermediate”

I think this is quite difficult and will vary depending on the individual’s approach; but for those familiar with the CEFR levels, B1 & B2 are intermediate. I would class myself as a “comfortable” B1. Check out a Reddit thread here about this.

Why being intermediate is great!

Seems kinda obvious right? Once you’re intermediate you find it much, much easier to enjoy native materials in your target language, you’re no longer taking 20 minutes to form the most basic of sentences and you feel that you actually have a decent range of vocabulary. You can use the language to explore your interests in an entirely new language, you find it a lot easier to guess meaning based on context and you finally feel like you’ve made solid progress!!! ;D

Why being intermediate is also not so great :(

Intermediacy comes with its downsides though; we’ve probably all seen many jokey tumblr posts about the pitfalls of being intermediate and there’s definitely an element of truth. Here’s a few reasons why it sucks: - You feel like you hit a plateau and aren’t progressing anymore. - Any progress you do make seems to take forever - Whilst you can enjoy native materials you do with a lot of dififculty; so many words are still unknown and being able to understand about 85% of every sentence (with the 15% being the most crucial) is irritating. - You don’t know how to explain to people where you are learning-wise - people literally expect a “I’m a beginner” or “I know [fluent] X”. - Going from lower to higher intermediate [or higher to advanced] takes a lot longer than it does to go from beginner to intermediate. - Trying to have a conversation is still a battlefield and whilst you’re used to hearing native speakers speak, tis still very fast and difficult to comprehend.

How to overcome these downsides?

The most important thing is - please don’t give up. Spending hundreds of hours to get to intermediate and quitting because it’s hard will be very silly. I have a few tips for how I’ve been managing my intermediacy woes:

- You MUST work harder. You must be prepared to work a lot more than you were beforehand, it sucks but it’s worth it. - Progress WILL be slower. This chart HERE shows what I mean - with the first couple of thousand words learnt (to get you to intermediate) progress is very quick and can be noticed within a timeframe of a day/few hours. This is because the most common couple of thousand words will make up about 95% of all words you are going to encounter, to bridge that 5% gap you need to learn 10,000s more (unless your language has a small vocabulary set). So you ARE STILL MAKING PROGRESS IT JUST TAKES LONGER. Which means.. - Look back at your progress every few weeks or so. Ask yourself what you can do now that you couldn’t do the other month, think about all the words you’ve learnt or grammar or whatever it is you’ve improved. Don’t expect progress to happen at the fast pace it did beforehand. - Aim higher. It’s very easy to get comfortable at B1/B2 level and not challenge yourself (if that’s your aim then fine) but you need to try things that are above your level. Stop using English subtitles (or any), start reading teenage books, listen to your language spoken at natural speeds not lower ones, actually work on the areas of your language that are most difficult for you etc. Just aim to work harder and yes it sucks and yes you might find it complicated but it is SO worth it when you overcome that barrier. - USE. NATIVE. MATERIALS. Stop relying just on Duolingo/Memrise etc. don’t work just from a textbook or grammar book, don’t just use sites aimed at English speakers. Watch the TV shows, read the books, listen to the music etc. that the native speakers would.

TL;DR Give me the best way to deal with being intermediate

Challenge yourself. Try and transcribe a natural conversation, turn off the subtitles, read a novel, write short stories etc. Don’t get comfortable and challenge yourself - the only way you’ll improve is by focusing on the areas you struggle with.

—

Ok so this is just a personal post so people might have different ways of looking at intermediacy which is fine but this is my experience with it.

If there’s anyone reading this who feels like they’re stuck at an intermediate plateau; trust me, you’re not and as you go through this stage many things will start to “click” and lord is it amazing when that happens.

incredible language v pretty

russian is spoken in russia as well as all former-ussr countries to some extent (and by some i mean ~50-95% can speak it depending on the country) so this covers a HUGE territory along with a GIANT number of speakers (so like if you want to travel to cool places, you can)

lomonosov, derzhavin, karamzin, zhukovsky, pushkin, lermontov, gogol, saltykov-shchedrin, turgenev, tolstoy, dostoyevsky, blok, akhmatova, mayakovsky, kamensky, tsvetayeva, drunina, i could go on forever,

knowing russian is a huge advantage if you want to learn a slavic language/a language native to a minority nation in russia bc more resources (+ you’ll have an understanding of grammar and lots of words if it’s a slavic language)

probably hockey

янка дягилева. if u tell me she’s not the light of ur life u lie

HOT. RUSSIAN. BABES.

russian is honestly so beautiful i sometimes cry because of it (fact)

you will come closer to understanding the ~MyStErIoUs RuSsIaN sOuL~

there are at least 50 derivatives of the word ‘dick’ and oh boy do they have some great definitions

http://informal-english.ru

perfective (imperfective)

купи́ть (покупа́ть) - что-л. to buy

скупи́ть (скупа́ть) - что-л. to “buy up”, to buy all of something (when you talk about how multiple people bought all of something so there’s no more of it left)

раскупи́ть (раскупа́ть) - что-л. same as above

докупи́ть (докупа́ть) - что-л. if you’ve bought some carrots but you should have bought more, you then have to докупить them. so it means “to buy more of something because originally you didn’t buy enough”

закупи́ть (закупа́ть) - что-л. to buy a lot of something, to buy something in bulk

закупи́ться (закупа́ться) - no object or чем-л. to buy all you need in one go, usually about groceries (maybe also about some things you need for the house and for your hygiene)

окупи́ться (окупа́ться) - no object; about a business, efforts, etc to pay off

подкупи́ть (подкупа́ть) - кого́-л. to bribe someone (to give someone money so they do something you want from them)

откупи́ться (откупа́ться) - от кого́-л. to buy off (to make someone stop demanding something from you by giving them money)

купи́ться - на что-л. to believe something untrue which the person who told you made up with that goal, to let yourself be tricked by someone

вы́куп - (кого́-л.) ransom, the money someone pays to free a hostage

по́дкуп - a bribe

покупа́тель - a buyer, a client (in a shop)

поку́пка - a purchase, a thing you buy

Для мене це справді велика честь.

Source: EuroNews

Useful phrases:

Для мене | For me

це справді | it is really

велика честь | a great honor

Notes:

The word це means this. The verb for “to be” is not used.

Для is a preposition with which the word(s) after it takes the genitive case. The genitive case is usually associated with possession or ownership. 

Because it is used with a genitive preposition ( Для ), the pronoun я becomes мене, like how the English I becomes me.

More Examples with Для

А як краще для людини? | What is better for a man?

Що саме для цього потрібно?  | What exactly is this?

У нас все для цього є.| We are all for it.

Here you are: 

сломать ногу - to break one’s legперелом кости - bone fractureоткрытый перелом - open fractureзакрытый перелом - closed fractureперелом со смещением - displaced fractureпорез - a cutпорезать палец - to cut a fingerколото-резаная рана - stab wound (in Russian, this term is mostly used in official medical reports)зарезать - to stab (to death, otherwise - ударить ножом, to stab with a knife)царапина - a scratchоцарапать руку - to scratch a handпоцарапаться - to scratch (oneself, when no specific place indicated)синяк - a bruiseудариться - to hit (self, no further details)удариться локтем - to hit an elbowЯ ударилась головой - I hit my head (feminine,masculine would be я ударился головой)шишка - a bump (when you hit your soft tissues and they become swollen)

I feel like a lot of langblr posts miss pronunciation resources so here’s some resources I use to help myself remember the pronunciation of new vocab.

I’ve found that it’s ridiculously hard to change the way I pronounce words once I’ve already “learned” the incorrect pronunciation, so it’s super important that you’re practicing the correct pronunciation when you learn words for the first time!!~

1. Anki.  I’m sure you’ve all heard of this app, but putting it here anyways. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AUDIO ON YOUR FLASHCARDS!!! (You can add audio by inserting a file onto the card in the edit mode~). Space repetition also works on pronunciation too!

2. Forvo They have words in pretty much every language! You can download pronunciations of words, and use them in your Anki flashcards. Users can rate the pronunciation of words, and you can request pronunciations for native speakers. It’s pretty cool and I use this website a ton.

3. Linguee My favorite online dictionary, by far. They have A LOT OF LANGUAGES offered!!! AND ALSO AN IPHONE APP. They have audio versions of almost all the words in the dictionary (at least for german), even plurals. Also, the you can download dictionaries to your phone WITH AUDIO and use it offline. Seriously, the app is awesome. (although tbh I can’t remember what languages they have on the phone app, but i know that german, spanish, and i believe french(?) are on there)

4. Memrise a lot of memrise courses will have pronunciation built into the course. I tend not to use the ones that don’t have audio

5. Netflix. Search for dubs of your favorite shows (or watch shows from that country~) the “Netflix Original” series have a lot of options for audio. 

Of course there’s more resources out there but these are the strategies that I use most often? Feel free to add more~

Happy language studying!

OMFG I just typed this whole thing and then accidently deleted it. Lol. Well, here’s to starting over!

Hi! I wanted to do this because I understand how hard it can be to learn anything on your own, and hopefully I can help. 

But first, a gif. 

i. starting

     ‣ Assess what type of learner you are. Do you memorize things easily, or does it take you more time? Do you prefer seeing things written out, or visually? Everyone doesn’t learn the same way, and that’s okay (that rhymed)!

          » If you want a name to the type of learner you are, here’s a quiz (it also gives tips depending on what type of learner you are) !

     ‣ Try to semi-immerse yourself in the culture.

          » What I mean by this is just to expose yourself to the culture. It’s easy to learn Spanish without learning any culture, but without it, you miss important things! Also, it’s cool to learn about another culture. But do this in a fun way!

               ✍ For example, listen to music & radio, watch TV & movies [or dramas/soap operas/novelas (YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT)], go to restaurants, ask friends 

     ‣ Make a study schedule

          » I have a hard time with this myself, because I am very ambitious. Remember to be realistic. If you have 3+ of homework each night, maybe you can’t study every day, and that is A-okay!

          » how to make one: here, here, and a template

     ‣ Have a unique way to motivate yourself. I saw this in another master post and thought it was so great. It suggested you reward yourself when you study, for example, watching a favorite show afterwords or making yourself a smoothie. 

And finally, breathe, you got this!

ii. the Alphabet

     ‣ Learn like a child with alphabet songs! These really help me. I like songs and visual things in general tbh…

          » Songs in: Spanish, English, Korean, Japanese, French, ASL, Russian and more!

     ‣ Find fun ways to remember the sounds

           » For example, in Korean the ㅎ makes an h sound, and a video I watched told me to remember it as a man with a hat on his head

     ‣ And always write down everything!

iii. the basics

I am constantly trying to rush the process. But, as my great piano coach says, “The process has to be as important as the product.” So before going to the fun stuff, I recommend knowing:

     ‣ colors

     ‣ numbers

          » a number song in Korean, 6 other languages       

     ‣ essential phrases : how to introduce yourself, how to say how old you are, how to ask for help, ‘thank you’, ‘please’, etc…

     ‣ days of the week

     ‣ how to say what time it is

     ‣ honorary terms

          » this really depends on the language. I’m actively learning Spanish and Korean and in those two this is important.

               ✍ ex. It’d be kinda weird to call my two year old cousin ‘usted’.

iv. the fun stuff

And finalllyyyyyyy…. the fun stuff!!! Since you’re not learning this in a formal classroom setting, you can really do whatever you like. 

     ‣ Grammar

          » Start small: learn one bit of grammar every other day, or whenever feels best, and put it into practice 

          » Stick to one good source: I just say this because hopping around sources can be really confusing, and not every source teaches same way

          » You don’t have to spend loads of money!! When I first wanted to learn a language, I thought Rosetta Stone would be my only option (lol). But there are so so so so so many options, ones that are free!!

All but BBC Languages are available as apps. 

               ✍ Duolingo

               ✍ Mondly: like Duolingo, but more languages

               ✍ HelloTalk: Talk to native speakers! I’m doing it right now! I really love this. 

               ✍ BBC Languages

     ‣ Vocabulary

          » Pick 3 (or more) words to learn a day. My NemoSpanish and NemoKorean apps introduce me to 3 per day.

          » Label things in your living space (if you’re allowed to)

          » If you don’t know it, don’t ignore it, learn it!

          » Find cool ways to remember words

          » Write every word you learn down. 

     ‣ Making it fun

the best part

          » reward yourself; watch + listen to things; be patient, it’s okay to make mistakes; join/make study groups

               ✍ If you’re learning Korean like me, message me! I have a study group that all are welcome to join. 

Ok that’s all!!