Language Memory

Here is the reading system I devised and now adapting to the study of foreign languages:

Mod N Reading System

Long time ago I planned and attempted to study German language and bought a dozen of basic level books and a few of intermediate and advanced. Now I repeat this attempt because I have a goal: to be able to read volumes of “Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg”.

The reading system is supplemented by listening to VocabuLearn CDs when I cannot read while commuting.

More on this later.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LanguageMemory.com -

I began learning English language at school in Russia 30 years ago at the age of 9 but wasn’t really any good at it. Rather I was interested in natural sciences (see my Vector Space Chemistry post) after an idea struck me that I could learn them on my own even before they were taught at my school or a university. However at the age of 15 another idea struck me that not only I could learn more about English language myself to improve my marks but also to study other languages as well like Latin and French. I took some guides in the local library but didn’t progress much. At Moscow State University I never paid attention to English language and progressed only in technical English mainly after reading twice Petzold’s book about Windows 3.x programming. Since then I improved my written technical English after working several years remotely for US companies. All changed by the end of 2000 when I decided to take an employment in Ireland mainly to see abroad and improve spoken English. in 2003 I joined a company specializing in C++ static analysis tools and became more proficient in C++ grammar. This sparked my renewed interest in the grammar of natural languages and linguistics in general. I started reading more and more English books about different subjects and began writing down vocabulary and pronunciation notes in numerous paper notebooks. After 1.5 years I was made redundant and that put a pause on my linguistic education for a while. Later I joined Citrix and became interested in the low level stuff again, especially in memory dump analysis. Recently an idea came to me to began writing language notes again and being a blogger suggested me to open a blog for this purpose.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LanguageMemory.com -