Another update:

I've found a new russian program. Its amazing how many of those programs are free right off of the Itunes store. Other than that I've been spending my time listening constantly, its probably the most use I've ever gotten out of my Ipod.

I hope the weekly presentations are showing my advancement because other than those I am having trouble thinking of ways of proving how hard I'm working at this. Please tell me if you have any ideas and feel free to ask for a peek at my Ipod if you want to see what I'm listening to.
I'm also having trouble thinking of a midterm presentation... I guess I could do a power point but i would really like to do something more auditory. I've got a while to figure out though.

New Technology

I downloaded 24 lessons of RussanPod and all ten episodes of oneminuteRussian and they have been a godsend. I can listen to them all the time and then just repeat what they say. I kind of use them as background noise the same way I used to use the TV. I can do other homework and just let the pronunciations and meanings sink in. The one-minute-Russian lessons are very basic but the Russian Pod lessons are a lot more in depth. The only problem I have with RussianPod is that its kind of a conversation between two people, which would be good to simulate conversations, except these two appear to be flirting a lot... which makes it a very strange listen.

I found a table on russian verbs:

TENSE AND ASPECT	USAGE	EXAMPLE SENTENCES
PAST TENSE, IMPERFECTIVE ASPECT	Used to designate an action that began and ended at a particular time in the past; the result is not important for the speaker	Вчера вечером он читал книгу.
	Used for an action that occurred over period of time but was completed in the past; the action, not duration, is emphasized	Он плавал в бассейне весь день.
	Used for an activity that took place regularly in the past	Во время каникул мы ходили в кино каждое утро.
	Used for actions occurred over period of time simultaneously but were completed in the past	Когда я читал книгу, брат смотрел телевизор.
	Used when the result of an action is nullified, i.e. an opposite action occurred	В комнате холодно, потому что я открывал окно. (i.e. открыл и закрыл)
	Used for an action that occurred over period of time but was completed in the past. The duration is emphasized	Он строил дом целый месяц.
PAST TENSE, PERFECTIVE ASPECT	Used to emphasize the result of an action that began and ended at a particular time in the past	Вчера вечером я прочитал книгу от начала до конца.
	Used for a past action that had a result before another past action that also had a result	Когда мы пришли в класс, учитель уже ушёл домой. Мы успели сыграть партию в шахматы до того, как пришёл Андрей.
	Used when the result of an action remains	Он надел новую рубашку. (i.e. он надел и сейчас она надета)
	Used to designate an action that began and ended at a particular time in the past; the time during which the result was achieved is emphasized	Он построил дом за месяц.
PRESENT TENSE, IMPERFECTIVE ASPECT	Used for a present state of affairs	Андрей живёт в Москве.
	Used for a general fact	Волга впадает в Каспийское море. Солнце встаёт на востоке.
	Used for habitual actions	Каждое утро он читает газеты.
	Used for future timetables and arrangements	Поезд отходит в 12:00. Решено. Мы идём в кино.
	Used for a specific action that is occurring	На улице идёт сильный дождь.
	Used for an activity that takes place over period of time specified	Они играют в теннис уже 2 часа.
FUTURE TENSE, IMPERFECTIVE ASPECT	Used for an action that will be ongoing or repeating at a particular time in the future, but it is not known whether will be finished of not	Завтра утром я буду играть в теннис. Вечером она будет готовить ужин.
FUTURE TENSE, PERFECTIVE ASPECT	Used for an action that will be finished at a particular time in the future	Скоро он узнает хорошие новости. Вечером она приготовит ужин.

http://masterrussian.com/blverbtable.shtml

Bibliography:

Figured I should get this posted instead of just leaving it on a piece of paper in my folder:

http://listen2russian.com/menu/index.html

http://www.uni.edu/becker/Russian2.html

http://learnrussian.elanguageschool.net/course/view.php?id=3

http://masterrussian.com/

http://www.russianlessons.net/

http://russian.speak7.com/

Complied knowledge

This is the information that I've compiled so far on pronouns and conjugations. The conjugation stuff I've found has me assured that I am speaking like a cave man in Russian. My pronunciations are dead on to my knowledge, though.

Definitions

Verbs are action words, they are things you can do. For example: run, walk, love, eat, want.

Pronouns are words that can replace names. For example: I, you, he, she, him, her, it.

In the sentence "I love him". "love" is the verb. The subject is "I", and the object is "him".
Russian Pronouns
Here are the Russian pronouns that can be used as the subject of a sentence. (Known as the nominative case.)

Я - "ya" - I

Ты - "Teh" - You (informal)

Он - "on/un" - He, It (m)

Она - "ahna/unu" - She, It (f)

Оно - It (n)

Мы - We

Вы - You (formal, or plural)

Они - They

Вы is used as the formal singular "you", and the plural "you" (slang: "yous" or "you all") when talking to more than one person.

Here are the Russian pronouns that can be used as the object of a sentence. (Known as the accusative case)

Меня - Me

Тебя - You (informal)

Его - ("yevo") - Him, It (m,n)

Её - Her, It (f)

Нас - Us

Вас - You (formal, or plural)

Их - Them

You should be familiar with using different pronouns for the subject and object of a sentence ("me" instead of "I"). Just remember that unlike English,Russian uses an extra version of the word "you". You should memorise these pronouns.
Russian Verbs

You will be pleased to know that Russian has only one present tense. In Russian there is only one way of saying "I work", "I am working" and "I do work".

Russian verbs change their endings depending on the subject. This happens a little in English, but not as much. (Example: I work, he works). This happens according to two different patterns known as the first conjugation, and the second conjugation. (There are also some irregular verbs). Both these patterns are quite similar, and once you get the hang of it, it is not too difficult.
The first conjugation

The first conjugation is used for verbs ending in "ть" but not "ить". It is the most common.

To form the verb for each person you need to drop the last two letters of the infinitive (normally "ть"), and add the appropriate ending ("ю", "ешь", "ет", "ем", "ете" or "ют").Let’s take a look at a verb that uses the first conjugation: работать (to work).

The second conjugation

Verbs where the infinitive ends in "ить" use the second conjugation.

Now we will introduce some verbs from the second conjugation. There are also some other verbs that use this conjugation.

The second conjugation uses the endings "ю" (or "у") "ишь" "ит" "им" "ите" "ят" (or "ат"), which replace "ить".

Note 1: The second conjugation is affected by the spelling rules.

Note 2: The first person singuar is affected by the rule of consonant mutation. Remember, this only applies to the first-person singular (Я).

Here are some of the words I've learned...

Yes Да dah	No Нет Nyet	Maybe Может быть moh-zhit bit'
Hello Здравствуйте zdrav-stvooy-tye	Hi Привет preev-yet	Good Day Добрый День doh-bry dzyen'
Good Afternoon Добрый День doh-bry dzyen'	Good Night Добрый Вечер doh-bry vyecher	Good Bye (General Use) До свидания duh-svee-dah-nya
See You (will see them in a short while) Пока pah-kah	Farewell (don't know when you'll see them next) Прощай proh-shchai	See you tomorrow До завтра dah zav-trah
Please/You're Welcome Пожалуйста poh-zhahl-stah	Thank You Спасибо spah-see-bah	Sorry Простите proh-stee-tye
Welcome Добро Пожаловать dah-broh poh-zhahl-oh-vat'	How are you doing? Как дела? kahk dze-la?	Okay, Alright Ладно Lahd-nah
Excellent Хорошо Khah-rah-sho	(Not) bad (Не)плохо (neh)ploh-khah

Concrete Evidence

I think its a great idea to keep tab on how much I'm really achieving just to help me stay on track and keep you in the loop. I've thought about this problem and I think I've come up with a pretty good idea. Every week I'll come in with a little "culture project." This will be a short speech, probably only about four or five sentences, using the words I know and have learned over the week of study. I'll conjugate most of the sentences myself beforehand and try to memorize everything so I can say it all from memory though I might need some written prompts to help me remember. I'm not sure how to prove that I'm studying, BYKI does have a grade sheet of sorts of how much I've got right and stuff like that, I'll try to print it out if i can but if I can't I hope these little projects will prove how hard I've been studying.

I also thought it might be good to memorize Russian idioms or sayings so the first project might be a collection of those.

I hope you agree with this idea and I look forward to sharing next Tuesday.

Update: 2

I've printed out more information on conjugating words and have thrown some pronouns into my studies. I'm having a little trouble because the pronoun site gave me letters to translate instead of sounds to emulate but I think I can sort of get the just of the pronouns from the movies I watched.

Work work work.

Update: 1

A slight problem with the BYKI software has limited much of my work to home so I've spent more of my time in class focusing on creating sentences on my own, conjucating my own words and stuff, and spending time at home working on pronunciation and memorizing phrases. Learning primarily through verbal techniques means I have to memorize alot more which poses a little of a problem, seeing as how I'm not so good at memorizing. The learning site I looked on said I could fix that by building every lesson on things I already know so every time I go over the same flashcards, faster than before, before going on to new ones. Its a slow process but I suppose its working.
Ms. Boswell says the BYKI should be ready on the school computer pretty soon so things might speed up after that.

See you tomorrow