I can’t believe it: first-person present-tense verbs in Russian show gender. In other words, the verb form accompanying “I” is different if a man is speaking than it would be if a woman were speaking. That concept is utterly…
My brain is not all there. Or here, either. I’m tired. I haven’t been sleeping enough, and today it caught up to me. I will probably need to redo Pimsleur lesson 19 (Level I), yet again, tomorrow, and the…
I am getting super frustrated with lesson 20 of Pimsleur (Level I). That happens to me. It feels as though they are adding way too much at once, without adequate explanation or clear enunciation. Then I get indignant, and irritable, and…
I just did more Pimsleur, this time lesson 21 (Level I). I did okay, but I am going to have to repeat it. Once again, I don’t know how people do these just once. All this studying is making…
In general, my memory is nothing special these days. When I was a child, it was like glue. I can still remember a huge amount of what happened before I went to college, especially from the ages of five to 11.…
Studying languages, particularly on one’s own, requires faith. I have never been good at the faith thing. As an example: last night when I did Pimsleur lesson 24, I felt it was impossible, that there was no way I would…
Today I tried a new thing: when I got up, instead of watching a few minutes of Russian television, I went straight to Pimsleur. Before I even drank my coffee. I mean, I did bring my cup with me and…
Today I learned that Dr. Pimsleur is dead. And in fact has been dead for a long time. He died in 1976 of a heart attack while visiting France, when he was only 49. I was very sad to learn that, because…
Today I finished Pimsleur Level I and was promoted to intermediate Pimsleur: Level II. I feel as though I have graduated. However, I am mourning the loss of the lady on the Level I tracks. She had such a lovely…
I have learned two things about Pimsleur since yesterday afternoon: I cannot run with Pimsleur. It is too hard physically, and I don’t do well mentally. Half-assedly repeating vocabulary words with VocabuLearn is very different from trying to construct…
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