TAC 2012 Official Thread (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

TAC 2012 Official Thread
Tags: Organization \| Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC)
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ellasevia
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2011
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6143 days ago
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Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

Message 1 of 361

05 December 2011 at 12:24am | IP Logged

The Total Annihilation Challenge is an annual, year-long language challenge which has been an HTLAL tradition since 2008. This upcoming year, 2012, will be the fifth annual TAC. Do you have what it takes to make it to the end of this legendary competition?

Questions regarding TAC 2012 have begun to arise, so I thought it time to create a new official thread to keep them all in one place and so as to not clutter the old threads. Now I’m not feeling overly creative or original at the moment, so I’m going to shamelessly steal what Sierra wrote for the introduction in the TAC 2011 thread.

Sierra wrote:

What say we attempt to have some structure to this whole shebang by December 17th (that's three [3] days, folks). By that I pretty much just mean: let's decide on the format by then. Let's aim for getting the teams organized by the 31st, so hopefully we can get the majority of interested parties to announce their interest by the 28th or 29th. If you're up for participating, let's hear from you! Things to include in your post: what languages are you planning on studying? Current level in these languages? Team TAC for 2011: yea or nay? Care to help organize?

Some handy reference points and a bit of motivation from the 2010 TAC thread, put together by the wonderful Shadow1984.

Quote:

2010 TEAM TAC THREAD

    This thread has been created in order to help structure the 2010 TEAM TAC (TOTAL ANNHILATION CHALLEGE). The is also necessary to prevent people who are not interested in doing a personal TAC know that there is a TEAM CHALLENGE that they can participate in as well. In order for the 2010 TTAC to be successful, ideas and structure is needed in order to make this project come together! Share your ideas! This will also be the sign up spot to join the competition. Please include the languages that you are targeting for this competition!

*Credit is given to the idea of a TEAM challege came from the HTLAL member DaraghM.

Special thanks is also given to BUTTONS for taking out all the time and effort she has put in, in order for this TEAM TAC to come into fruition!

Also thank you to all the members who have voiced their inputs and suggestions to help organize this new project.

Here are some reasons why we should have a TEAM TOTAL ANNHILATION CHALLENGE!

1. MOTIVATION - Language learning can be hard, actually it is hard! By having a TTAC you will be able to bond with other language learners easier instead of going at it alone. Being on a team can help give you the motivation that is needed when times get tough!

2. RESOURCES - Having a good team will help guide you in the best resources that can help you achieve what you want to achieve in a faster amount of time! By making friends people could get the idea of the type of learner you are and point you into the direction of some resources that you never knew existed.

3. PRACTICING - Did you know the more you practice something the better you get at it? Now you have people you can practice on via email/skype/phone or whatever it may be. If you make mistakes who cares? You guys both need the practice!

4. COMPETITION - A little friendly competition never hurt anyone, well I don't think it has but there are some crazy people out there! Some people are driven by competition. I happen to be one of them!

Alright, we have a little under a month to get everything organized before the new year. First of all, we need participants! If you'd like to take part in the 2012 Total Annihilation Challenge, please post a declaration of your desire to do so. As stated in Sierra's post, please include:

Language(s) you plan to study
Your current level(s)
Your goals for the challenge
Whether you would like to be on a team or an individual participant
Any additional comments, requests, or suggestions

We also need someone to lead and organize these masses of people, so please also say if you're willing to help organize the challenge. I organized the TAC 2011, so here's essentially what needs to be done if you'd like to help out this year:

Familiarize yourself with how the challenge works so that you can answer any questions that may come up
Create and maintain an updated list of all participants, preferably with links to their logs, once created (like HERE)
Decide on an organizational scheme for teams (language, personal requests, level, etc.)
Make a list of the teams you've assembled and individual participants
Follow the participants throughout the year and keep track of who's still in
In December, initiate the voting process for teams and acknowledge all who have made it through to the end
Arrange for some sort of prize with the administrator for the winning team(s)

If you still are committed to organizing after all of that, feel free to just jump in and grab the reins! That’s the only way things get done around here. :) Once you’ve expressed real interest by doing that, I’ll relinquish all control to you and send you a PM with any additional details about the challenge and team formation that I think you should know or could be helpful.

Now, onto the matter of teams. The past two years, teams have for the most part been created according to a shared target language between team members. There have also been a couple instances where individuals requested to be on a team together despite not having any common languages (ie, Team KEN, Team Ohana). Both of these, as well as anything else you can think of, are valid ideas. Please share any ideas and opinions that you may have on team formation so that this year’s organizer can take them into consideration!

Lastly, sometime between announcing your participation and the beginning of January you should create your own personal TAC log in the Language Logs Subforum. This will be where you document your year-long journey and where fellow team members and onlookers can comment, help, advise, or encourage you along the way. Please make sure to include "TAC 2012" in the title of the log so that it will be recognizable to the organizer and other participants. If you have been assigned to a team, please also include which team you belong to.

Having said all of that, I’m going to set a bad example for all of you and break all of the guidelines I just set forth. I’m still not sure whether I want to participate in TAC again this year, and if so, I haven’t decided what languages I’d be studying. It’s all still very much up in air. I also cannot organize the challenge again this year, so that’s why I’m asking for new volunteers. (Plus, would you really want me to be in charge two years in a row? I might turn into an evil dictator or something.) I will definitely join you all and declare my participation as soon as I make all of the necessary decisions…

I hope this will be a fun and successful year in language learning for everyone! Best of luck to all, and thank you in advance to any volunteers!

Edited by ellasevia on 05 December 2011 at 3:04am
7 persons have voted this message useful

Serpent
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Senior Member
Russian Federation
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4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 2 of 361

05 December 2011 at 2:44am | IP Logged

Would anyone want to be in a multilingual team, like the German+French one last year? I don't study French but I study three other Romance languages - Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. (also Catalan and Romanian but I'd rather participate with those three - definitely not with Catalan)
An unusual combination would also be fun (Spanish+Indonesian? Italian+Finnish? Portuguese+Croatian?) - anyone up for it? :)
can you be in more than one team btw? i'll be aiming to improve more than one or even two L2s for sure;)

Edited by Serpent on 05 December 2011 at 2:55am
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Kerrie
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United States
justpaste.it/Kerrie2
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Studies: Spanish

Message 3 of 361

05 December 2011 at 3:06am | IP Logged

I will be back again (for the whole year this time) with Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Bosnian/Croatian. I might pick up German, too, if my job slows down a little after the holidays. I would love to be part of a team that shares more than one of my target languages. Serpent, I'd love to be on an Italian/Portuguese/Spanish/Croatian team with you, although I've just starting learning Portuguese and Croatian.
1 person has voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6598 days ago
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Message 4 of 361

05 December 2011 at 3:32am | IP Logged

Kerrie wrote:

Serpent, I'd love to be on an Italian/Portuguese/Spanish/Croatian team with you, although I've just starting learning Portuguese and Croatian.

OMG this would be fantastic ♥♥♥
I'm quite new to Croatian too, well I have the advantage of being a Russian native speaker :D And Spanish is the weakest of my three major Romance languages...
Any ideas for naming the team? Anyone else who'd want to join?
It could even be an epic Romance+Slavic team :)))))))))))
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JoaoCorreia
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Portugal
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Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French^C2

Message 5 of 361

05 December 2011 at 4:56am | IP Logged

Is there a minimum of languages one must tackle? As I rather study one language at a time.
Serpent, I'm a Portuguese native speaker and was considering on studying Russian (or continue my
Norwegian, not quite sure yet), don't know if that fits in your team criterium.
1 person has voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6598 days ago
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Message 6 of 361

05 December 2011 at 5:37am | IP Logged

JoaoCorreia wrote:

Hehe it's more than fine to study just one language. I think last year (this year) most teams were focused on just one.
and sure, if you pick Russian you're very welcome :))) (unless the... authorities have any objections, but I really doubt they will :D

As for the team name, maybe something like Team Žá or Team Šã? :) i'd prefer the former because i love it how "ja" means something in so many various languages XD
2 persons have voted this message useful

Kerrie
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Kerrie2
Joined 5396 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 7 of 361

05 December 2011 at 5:47am | IP Logged

Serpent wrote:

As for the team name, maybe something like Team Žá or Team Šã? :) i'd prefer the former because i love it how "ja" means something in so many various languages XD

I love that!
1 person has voted this message useful

Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5957 days ago
1021 posts - 1714 votes

Studies: French

Message 8 of 361

05 December 2011 at 8:12am | IP Logged

I’m in for TAC 2012.   I am looking to study principally German and French during the
coming year.

German: near-complete beginner, though I had dabbled a bit in early 2010 with German.
I would like to work through the FSI German material (Programmed Introduction, then
Basic, just because I am a masochist), Michel Thomas, Pimsleur, Deutsche Welle’s
Warum nicht? and perhaps some of the BBC German language material and some of
the German.about.com and Germanpod101.com material

French: perhaps low intermediate, and am hoping to continue to study and improve.

I have some interest in taking on a Team TAC approach.   I am usually not much into
team work – I was mostly raised by a family of racoons in the woods as a feral child,
and truth be told we fought over food scraps more than we co-operated – but I am
willing to give the team approach a try and if anyone is interested in taking me on as
a team member, I offer at least the prospect of making you look good and dedicated in
comparison when I wind up dropping out entirely within a month or two.

Edited by Spanky on 05 December 2011 at 8:14am

1 person has voted this message useful

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