Interactions with David:

This is the e-mail I sent David Monday:

David,
My name is Ben Wertz. I am a student of Cara Cassel, and am studying
Russian independently to earn a final foreign language credit. So far
my studies have been limited to a number of free teaching sites and
audio lessons.
Since I only have a semester to pursue the Russian language I've
limited myself to verbal Russian and more narrowly to the language
necessary to greet a server and then order food in a restaurant.
Since I cannot pay you I assure you that your part in my studies will
be as unobtrusive to you as possible. I do feel that I would benefit
greatly from having a native speaker critique my pronunciations from
time to time and make sure that I have not learned a manner of
speaking that is either too formal or too informal.
Please reply when you get this so we can set up a time later in the
week to have a fifteen or twenty minute conversation, nothing major.
Just a short conversation to see how my basic greetings are.

I look forward to your reply,

--Ben

And heres the reply I got back on today (Tuesday):

Hi Ben, Cara told me about you and your problem , I am willing to help as much as I can . Feel free to call me at Cell ***-***-**** or Home ***-***-****
Thanks David

I am going to send him another e-mail telling him I plan on calling on Thursday around 1:30. I'm probably building this up more than I should but I would really like to be prepared for my first tutoring session, such as it is. This is as far as I'd like to put it off so I can have time to study what he told me on Friday and over the break. I have no doubts that my studies will decrease over the break but I will still do my best to squeeze some sessions in.

Spoonful of Russian

I'm going back through through the Spoonful of Russian Lessons and doing a sort of review on the stuff I've learned through other sources so I don't embarrass myself too badly during my first phone conversation thingy. This also gives me an opportunity to see how another person pronounces the words I've already learned. The site itself is very helpful, it allows me to follow along with the lesson. Though I've focused on learning Russian by ear, Spoonful of Russian has alot of videos, one for every letter I think, to help my learn how to read. I haven't tried them yet because I'm not sure if I have time this semester to have a comprehensive understanding of both the spoken and written language, so I think I'll focus on the spoken for now.

I've thought of what I think is a pretty good idea for my final too. I plan on making a meal, or at least a bunch of samples, of authentic Russian food. I'll then name the food, in Russian, and be able to go through the routine of ordering each of the dishes in Russian and understanding the servers questions and answers. What do you think?

Today in Russian:

I spent today listens to the Spoonful of Russian again. They have a conversation between a server and a restaurant client that I am trying to learn. Its a very long and involved conversation but I guess its a good introduction to the kind of banter I can expect when ordering food.
The entire conversation is on the web so I was hoping I could try it with my tutor person. If that works out I suppose.

Possibly the best site:

Spoonfullofrussian.com!

Its amazing, its an american teaching russian with tons of verbal lessons paired with pictures and words. It's a real find.

Learning about Russian food

I've spent much of this week looking up all the different kinds of food. Its no good to know how to order food if you don't know what the Russian dishes are.
Here are a couple I've Googled the recipes for:
bleeni s eekroy ... pancakes with caviar > potato pancakes with caviar
bleeni sa smeetanay ... pancakes with sour cream > potato pancakes with sour cream
borshch ... borshch > a beet soup
akroshkoo ... okroshka > a cold greens-based soup
aseetreenoo pa rooskee ... poached sturgeon with tomato sauce and vegetables
pel'menee ... pelmeni

Pelmeni sounds especially good. Its a sort of mincemeat ravioli deal, it sounds really good.

I've also looked up a lot of badly translated Russian dishes from the Ruscusine website (www.ruscusine.com). I found this recipe for for Zebra cake that sounds so easy I might have to make it for you guys.

I've learned that the majority of Russian dishes are high is protein and simple carbohydrates. I guess the cold kind of made that cusine evolove. Lots of potato dishes. I mean LOTS.

Midterm

I spent much of this week working on my midterm project thing as pathetic as that is. I really am no good with powerpoint. Then on Wednesday I went to the bodies exhibit so I didn't study that day either. Its really bad to skip days according to the sites I've looked at, they say you've really got to do it everyday for at least an hour to get the stuff memorized. I've been pretty good about that up until this week, even getting in some time over the weekend, but this week it all just fell apart. We've got a long weekend coming up though and I've got the rest of today to get on course so I think I should be alright.