Language Preparation

I have been studying Ukrainian for three years.

This is a short timeline of my history as a student.

June, 2015- I started my study of Ukrainian with the DuoLingo website.

October, 2016- I completed the DuoLingo Ukrainian skill tree.

October 2016- January, 2018- I studied with tutors via Skype from the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. My classes were generally 2-3x a week.

October, 2016- January, 2017- My teacher was Oksana and she was (and is) amazing. We worked our way through about half of the elementary Яблуко program. I was really happy and progressing well. 

February 2017- May, 2017- Oksana was unable to teach me anymore because she was in the process of moving somewhere else. She recommended a teacher named Iryna, saying that I would do really well with full immersion and that Iryna did not know much English, which would be helpful to me. I tried the whole three months, and I couldn't make it. I couldn't make the necessary connections between what I knew how to read and what I could understand when I listened. The approach should have worked. Iryna was a good teacher. But, I wasn't getting very far. I was very sad to admit that and move on.

June 2018- December, 2018 - I started learning from my 3rd teacher, Andriyana. Andriyana is a brilliant young woman with a degree in Linguistics, fluent in four languages. I had forgotten a lot during the time I was studying with Iryna. In addition, Andriyana was very aware that my auditory and speech ability was nowhere near my ability to read and write. So, she wanted to review everything in the first half of the book that I studied with Oksana, all over again. That also felt discouraging to me. 

In addition, I had just started a new job and the only time that worked for us to have our sessions was after I finished working from 3 a.m. until 7 a.m. I could barely keep my eyes open, so concentration was a real issue. The material got harder at what felt like all at one time. Andriyana tried all sorts of different techniques and nothing helped it all "click" for me. 

One year of independent study with native Ukrainian speakers still had barely brought me past the point where Oksana took me, which was half-way through my A2 book. My vocabulary is better and I learned a lot of grammatical cases with Andriyana's help. I still could not listen and speak well. I told Andriyana I needed a break. I knew I had to think of something else that would work.

January 2018- February, 2018 (present) - Almost all I do now is auditory study. I'm using the Mango Languages website and I'm using the Pimsleur program also. I've learned quite a lot of vocabulary, close to 3000 words. Still, I haven't been able to speak as well as I really need to. So, I try for an hour a day (and I really do need two hours a day) to train my ears and get used to making the sounds. I am starting to feel the rhythm of the language and I am getting a lot more comfortable. 

My plan from now until June

I'm going to complete Mango Languages and Pimsleur, which may take until about April. At a certain point, I plan to return to my A2 text and workbooks and attempt to finish them. I will probably see if I can learn from one of my former teachers again at some point before I leave in June. If I can get my listening and speaking skills caught up by June, the rest of my learning will come together and I should be at B level when I arrive. If not, well, the Language School should be able to help me solve the conundrum about why I got so stuck a year ago. 

My vocabulary and grammar are fairly strong now. I just need to get more comfortable with speaking and hearing.