language maintenance-this is long, so get a cup of tea!

[Herself]

    On the  topic  of what students could do over the summer:  I think they should find something- a hobby, an obsession, a real love- that they normally are very interested in, and study new things about it in Russian. They can keep their textbooks and dictionaries around in case they need them, and  hopefully they will end up using those for reference-but NOT put pressure upon themselves to "keep up the Russian". They DO need to keep it up, of course,  but not with the attitude that that is what they are doing. They have to  do something FUN that they already like...and incorporate Russian into it. Examples: if it is sewing-then find out about Russian patterns and designs and sewing books-try to buy a Russian pattern and made something-they'd have to follow the directions in Russian..if it is a sport, watch it or read about it in Russian, join an online group or website dedicated to that sport, in Russian. If they love computers,make  a website in Russian. If someone  has a second computer, buy Russian Windows and install that and learn to use it. 
    Students might enjoy this whole question as a summer assignment. It might be fun to give  students who plan to continue in Russian and who will be back in the fall this assignment for the summer :  
                       "Help us find ideas of how students can continue learning Russian over the summer. Find everything you can in any genre of media you can, and as you go through your summer, keep a list of things you found that were fun and also got you thinking about/listening to/speaking/writing/reading/thinking  in Russian. When you come back in the autumn, a prize will be awarded to the student with the most useful or long list--or the list containing the most things that are so useful that we can incorporate them into our suggested activities".
 The prize could be something like 2 tickets to a museum exhibit, play, film, DDT concert or something Russian-related.(If it was me, I'd work hard to get those DDT tickets!!)

    I am studying on my own and so there is no summer break for me. But I have noticed things about this studying of Russian. One is that I do need a break sometimes, despite my high motivation for learning this language. And with languages, when you are away from the material, you will forget  and then have to re-learn things again later. So, realizing this, I decided to make a personal rule for myself: Do something each day, anything, as long  as it is in Russian. Just something! So when I feel burnt-out from these grammar books, I do one of the following things: Watch a Russian film (of course!), watch Russian TV(I have DishNetwork and a few Russian channels. Watching the news is fun, especially because one of my daughters has  now "fallen in love" with one of the Russian reporters!  And I love one particular TV show where a taxi driver picks up people who then become contestants on the show and have to answer questions during the ride for a prize. I love seeing the views of Moscow through the cab window, hearing the popular tunes they play, and observing the behavior of the passengers and trying to understand the words. ) Browse Russian websites. Use Google.ru. Listen to Russian songs and get the Russian lyrics and try to sing along-this is very good! Memorize short Russian poems for children. Read children's tales. Watch Russian cartoons. Try to cook a recipe from a Russian cookbook. Look at www.Russiantable.com and decide what chocolates I want to order and see how I like them. Look at Russian recipe and cooking websites! Read recipes. Talk to people on Skype who want to practice Russian or who prefer to speak Russian. Listen to audio files of Винни пух and read along with the text and try to understand. Watch ridiculous videos on youtube which are in Russian. 
    I stop doing something if I start to feel bored, and then go to something completely different.Even if I am ill, I find something! Listen to my little mp3 player while in bed, to Pimsleur lessons, or to Russian songs.
 
    I realize that nothing here is new to any of you. I am sure you are aware of many more things than I've found! And it seems there is an endless universe of great "Russian stuff" on the internet and in other media.(And I am sooooo glad!)
 As long as I follow my self-imposed personal rule, I'm ok. I end up absorbing things even when I don't realize it. Later I will find a word and remember that I saw it already somewhere. I might not remember where, but it is familiar. Doing this every day has taken the strangeness away from Russian for me. It all seems familiar and comfortable and not so intimidating. And I like that feeling of joy that I get when something that seemed unimportant turns up later in a grammar book and I already saw it or heard it before and it is easier to learn because of that. And memories need connections to make them really stick. I am at the point now where this does not feel like drudgery anymore. It is more fun because I have built up a little foundation  of things that can be connected to, in my brain. New things I study slways seem to click in there somehow because of something I saw somewhere before.It is all becoming more meaningful. (And it may also have something to do with that "Russian language learning curve")

    Another thing I would like to mention is that because I am on my own, I have bought a variety of used textbooks. At first it was a little confusing because I could not really decide which to use as a base. Then I sort of worked out a system where I would pick one and go as far in that one as I can, then stop and take up another, and go as far as I can in that one, and so on. Over time, I would get back to the first one again and see that I have progressed and can now go much farther in that one..and so then I continue on again with them all. It was rough  in the beginning because after the authors finish with the usual introduction of alphabet and pronounciation rules, then anything goes. Some begin discussing all 6 cases, others do not mention them at all, but start giving simple dialogs. Some seem to be addressing 6th grade students and others seem to be addressing very academically motivated graduate students, and the approaches are all so different. It was very slow going for a while because each book had me doing something different. Now I have found which books I like best and use them for my "base" and use the others as extra sources for reinforcing things or for excercises-in other words, I  don't follow the others chapter-by-chapter, but use them when I need extra practice or clarification. And that is the main advantage of this oddball method of mine- the clarification. I feel fortunate to have   many books because sometimes the explanation in one about a topic is  really mystifying. And in the next, I still don't understand it. But in another, the author will have explained that same thing in a different way and it just hits me the right way and suddenly I understand! It is like having several people explain something to me, and finally one explains it in a way which I can understand.

    I hope something of what I have written is helpful, somehow. I am having so much fun studying this on my own, that I rather envy kids who get to study  it at a college or university and who have lots of people around them who also love the language-that must really be fantastic!

Sincerely,

 Nola G.
 California
P.S. I know this will sound crazy,  but it really helps to keep a grammar book in THE BATHROOM. I have found answers to many questions in there! 







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