I did it y’all. As of Friday, I wrapped up my 16-week Russian class (3 hours a day, 5 days a week!). Taking into account my sick days and our week in Paris, I figure I logged right around 200 hours of class time. When you add that to the 105 hours spent on Duolingo, the 160 hours during my 8 weeks in the FSI full-time program, and the distance program I did from March through August (estimated 10 hours a week for 24 weeks = 240), that adds up to a grand total of 705 hours of Russian learning in 2023, though it’s likely closer to 1000 with all my study time and flash-card making.
And despite all that, I still struggle to form sentences! :) Ha! What a humbling, frustrating, occasionally exhilarating experience it has been. Learning a foreign language is hard to begin with; but even more so as an adult. My brain has definitely not atrophied this year though, that’s for sure! On the plus side, I am understanding so much more than I could three months ago, and by and large am able to communicate and get my message across (even if it’s not all grammatically correct). Kazakhs are also quite forgiving of errors, thank goodness!
We celebrated our last class of the semester with a holiday party. There were treats, Russian songs, and one of our teachers even did a beautiful Kazakh dance in traditional costume. It was the perfect way to end the semester and part of me feels really sad about not going back (more on that below).
There were eight people in my class including me (one came mid-way through the semester, after the photo below was taken). Nearly all were Korean, which gave me the opportunity to learn tons about Korean holidays, customs, and food–especially during the Korean lunch we all shared together. They were a delightful group and I so enjoyed my daily ritual of riding the bus (for 22 cents!), getting a $2 16-oz Cappuccino, and then laughing my way through three hours of learning with them. It was a comforting and welcome structure for the first few months as I was finding my feet.
There was shocking amount of fun and laughter in our class, and our Belarussian teacher Anna was a big part of that. She set a lighter, fun tone in the classroom, which helped us not get down about all the mistakes we were making. She was infinitely patient with my obsessive need to understand why things were the way they were. I’m sure I was like an annoying toddler with my never-ending ‘why’ questions! My least favorite answers to ‘why’ questions were: 1.) That’s just the way it is or 2.) It’s an exception. I HATE exceptions. They’re so hard to remember. Good thing Russian is full of them . . . but I digress. On to what’s next for me!
The next semester starts January 8th and the majority of my group will be returning. I have decided to take a break from the classroom this semester, mostly because I don’t want to have all my mornings tied up. I am keen to get more involved in the local International Women’s Club, who, from the few brief experiences I’ve had with them, are super fun and very active. There’s hiking club on Mondays, Russian-speaking club on Tuesdays, coffee morning on Wednesdays, skiing on Thursdays, not to mention tennis and craft club and book club and yoga! The list goes on and on. I told you they were active! The only downside is that most everything happens in the morning hours. So this spring I want to focus on trying out all of those activities before visiting the U.S. for the summer and *hopefully* landing a job by fall.
That’s not to say I’m done with Russian. I’m going to start one-on-one lessons with a private teacher two times a week and find one or two Russian-speaking clubs to practice in the other days. I feel like my learning has covered a wide variety of topics, but there’s certain things I need to go back and drill with a tutor. I also want to do more self-study, watch more Russian Youtube, listen to Russian songs, and do a daily 30 minute audio lesson that I have found effective. So that’s the current plan. I’m hoping it will be a good fit, but if not, I’ll pivot and rejoin my group in class.
That’s all for today. Happy holidays! May your holidays be memorable and joy-filled!
