Nearly 11 years ago I taped a Russian-French documentary entitled “Chaliapine, L’Enchanteur”. His was a voice quite regularly heard on German radio in my childhood.
In 2003, at the time the film was shown, I could just about manage to read the French sub-titles and understand the (very, very) occasional word of Russian. Shortly after that my video player gave up its ghost and I switched to DVD and boxed up the videos. I joined LingQ in 2009 and have been doing French and (some) Russian more or less regularly. Mostly, less.
Recently I found all my old videos in the garage, together with the rough index I had made. Imagine my joy when I read Feodor Chaliapin’s name! I managed to rig up an ancient video player - also from the garage - on a spare monitor.
To my great joy and amazement, I didn’t need the French subtitles at all. Actually, I didn’t even have to pay attention to the French, I simply understood it.
I was able to concentrate on the Russian while I listened to the wonderful singers and speakers. Russian heaven. What an amazing record of amazing times. I still don’t understand more than a few words, but I’ve got a feel for the language at last!
Thank you, nevertheless!