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Super Challenge Registration/ Update 2012

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5331 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 329 of 656
04 June 2012 at 11:23pm | IP Logged 
jessikt wrote:
LANGUAGE: German, Spanish, Swedish

CHALLENGE: 3 x Half Challenge (50 books, 50 movies in each language!)

CURRENT LEVEL: Just starting! I'm about a C1 in German, B1-2 in Spanish and complete beginner in Swedish

COMMENTS: I'm hoping this challenge will help me learn more about the cinema and literature of the three
languages I am interested in, as well as polishing my German and Spanish skills and giving me a jump-start learning
Swedish! I will be posting about my progress in detail in my blog:
http://ichestudiolangues.com


You can register for Swedish and possibly for Spanish, but I am afraid that you are overqualified in German, since B1 is the upper limit. You could do an Advanced Super Challenge in German though :-)

Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 04 June 2012 at 11:24pm

1 person has voted this message useful



RMM
Diglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 5224 days ago

91 posts - 215 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Italian, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Swedish, Japanese

 
 Message 330 of 656
05 June 2012 at 12:52am | IP Logged 
UPDATE

OK, I meant to update again here a while back, but just didn’t get around to it. I agree with Kanewai that I’d like to see people’s thoughts posted here more often, so I guess I’d better contribute my fair share too.

Since last update I’ve started playing catch up with my Spanish and to a lesser extent my Italian. I especially went crazy with fantasy films. I watched all three Narnia films dubbed in Spanish. The first one is the best, but the others are worth watching, especially if you see them in high quality blu-ray. I also watched the first Potter film in Spanish, since I’ve started reading the book in Spanish and I have the audio book for it on top of that. I enjoyed it, but I like the later Potter stories better.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which I likewise watched in Spanish, is a film I absolutely love. It is a very quirky Terry Gilliam film, though, which may put a lot of people off. It was also Heath Ledger’s last film and a few other famous actors filled in for him in scenes that he wasn’t able to finish (this was done very cleverly). At any rate, it is a very creative (OK, really bizarre) film about the importance and uniqueness of imagination that also stars Christopher Plummer (of The Sound of Music fame).

The only movie actually filmed in Spanish that I watched was Guillermo del Toro’s El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth). This is an excellent dark fantasy film with hints of a horror film. I could have done without some of the cringe-worthy violence (especially the resistance fighter who got his face bashed in with a bottle or the colonel personally stitching up the gaping wound in his face), but this really has got to be one of the greatest Spanish-language films ever made. It is very artistically done without losing any interest or suspense. It also is a little ambiguous, which is great--I like it when movies aren’t overly simplistic.

The Italian movie I watched was a fantasy film as well. Stardust (dubbed) is charming and much brighter than Pan’s Labyrinth. It was always entertaining with a inventive story, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy. It deserves to be better known. I also watched two more well-made “Correva l’anno” historical documentaries.

In Spanish I read Una princesa de Marte (A Princess of Mars) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who was most famous for creating Tarzan. This was a great, suspenseful sci-fi/fantasy/action book. It was originally written as a piece of cheap pulp fiction but it’s got to be among the best examples of that type of writing. I almost couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. I didn’t see the movie John Carter when it was out, but this is the book that it was based on. I started on the next book in the series immediately after finishing this one, as it ended on a cliffhanger (ugh!).

I also read a few short stories in Spanish and Italian. They all had a strong verismo feel to them, somewhat like a Verga story. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s En el mar (At Sea) was especially good, although a bit depressing. I’m happy to be reading some things by actual Spanish and Italian writers, even if they are just tiny stories. I do think reading in translation is easier and less idiomatic though.

For German, I watched the movie Napola, known as Before the Fall in English. This was about a boy’s disastrous experiences at a Nazi elite school during WWII. It was pretty good, but not as good as something like Europa, Europa on a somewhat similar topic for example.

I’ll wait to discuss partially read books when I’ve finished them.


RUNNING TOTAL:
"Official" book count by page is listed on Twitter
* New to this update

German (Half)

Books:
1. Die Chroniken von Narnia: Das Wunder von Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew) – C.S. Lewis [172 pp]
2. Die Chroniken von Narnia: Der Ritt nach Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy) – C.S. Lewis [172 pp]
3. Der Prozeß gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Gerichtshof Nürnberg – Band 10 (The Trial of German Major War Criminals: Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal Sitting in Nuremberg Germany – Part 10: 23rd March to 3rd April, 1946) – Transcripts for March 25, 1946 [82 pp]
*4. Die Chroniken von Narnia: Der König von Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) – C.S. Lewis [chapters 1-9]

Films:
1. Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944)
2. Nazi-Diplomatie Intern: Das Auswärtige Amt in der Ära Ribbentrop / Hitlers Helfer: Joseph Goebbels - Der Brandstifter
3. Herr Lehmann (2003)
4. Der Amerikanische Freund (1977) (+ trailer and deleted scenes)
5. The Sound of Music (1965) (dubbed in German)
6. Der Untergang des alten Europa / Erster Weltkrieg: Der moderne Krieg
7. Hitlers Frauen: Eva Braun - Die Freundin / Der Bunker: Hitlers Ende
8. 100 Jahre der Countdown: Die großen Bilder des 20. Jahrhunderts - Teil 2 (1920-1939)
*9. Napola (Before the Fall) (2004)

Writings:
[Not yet listed on Twitter]
1. Scriptorium

Italian (Half)

Books:
*1. Capannetta: Bozzetto Siciliano (Little Hut: Sicilian Sketch) – Luigi Pirandello [4 pp - short story]

Films:
1. Correva l’anno: Processo di Norimberga - Joachim von Ribbentrop / Correva l'anno: La Seconda Guerra Mondiale - I medici del Reich
*2. Correva l’anno: Processo di Norimberga - Baldur von Schirach / Correva l’anno: La Guerra di Mussolini
*3. Stardust (2007) (dubbed in Italian)

Spanish (Half)

Books:
*1. Una princesa de Marte (A Princess of Mars) - Edgar Rice Burroughs [190 pp]
*2. La Pared (The Wall) – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez [4 pp - short story]
*3. En el mar (At Sea) – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez [7 pp - short story]
*4. Dioses de Marte (The Gods of Mars) - Edgar Rice Burroughs [chp. 1-9]

Films:
1. Las Quatro Plumas (1939) (The Four Feathers dubbed in Spanish)
*2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005) (El León, la Bruja y el Ropero) (dubbed)
*3. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) (El príncipe Caspian) (dubbed)
*4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) (La travesía del Viajero del Alba) (dubbed)
*5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone [1] (2001) (dubbed)
*6. El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) (2006)
*7. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) (dubbed)


Edit: I forgot to add my new piece of writing. As I mentioned in the main Super Challenge thread I would like to add writing to my half challenges.



Edited by RMM on 05 June 2012 at 1:19am

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wv girl
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5236 days ago

174 posts - 330 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 331 of 656
05 June 2012 at 3:34am | IP Logged 
Update: I've read about 150 pages in La Piramide Roja. My 9 year old is competing
with me to see who can read it faster. Well, no surprise, she's in the lead! While my
reading speed is improving & my comprehension is good, it's not the best choice for me,
although I'll finish it. Usually there are 3-5 words per page that I don't know, but
can figure out or they aren't important. Then there will be a section where I'm not
sure what is happening! I can check her copy in English to make sure, which is handy,
but I really prefer more adult reading.

I started out writing some unknown words, then looking them up at the end of each
chapter on google translate. Lot faster than my dictionary! Some vocab is useful,
like locks, door handles, other words for yelling, etc., but others just don't stick.

However, without the challenge, I'm sure I wouldn't even be attempting more than
articles in People en Espanol.

Need to work on my movies, though. RMM, I watched Pan's Labyrinth last year & liked it
very much, except for the violent scenes. I need to know when to look away. I also
understood a good portion of the Spanish! You might like The Devil's Backbone, which
is more of a ghost story. Still violent, though, which is even more disturbing when
it's real & directed toward children.
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Eagle32
Groupie
New Zealand
Joined 6498 days ago

56 posts - 83 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 332 of 656
05 June 2012 at 3:41am | IP Logged 
I shall join the fray. I feel like I completed a challenge already by reading the entire Super challenge question thread!

LANGUAGE: French

CHALLENGE: 50/50

CURRENT LEVEL: I'd say low B1 in reading and A2 in listening.

COMMENTS: It hasn't been a good year for studying French for me, too many other things have placed it on the back burner. It's looking like I have a bit more free time now, so hopefully this will be an excellent way to get going again.
1 person has voted this message useful



Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6617 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 333 of 656
05 June 2012 at 8:37am | IP Logged 
kanewai wrote:


What has frustrated you the most: I'd like to see more people updating here! Lists are fine, but I like to read people's thoughts, experiences, and recommendations.



I agree 100%. I really have no idea what would be interesting to watch or read in Japanese, so reviews would be very helpful. For that reason, I always review everything I read/watch. Hopefully, my reviews will help others decide what they want to try and what they want to avoid. I only give very short reviews on this thread, but there are more complete reviews on my blog.
1 person has voted this message useful



clumsy
Octoglot
Senior Member
Poland
lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5175 days ago

1116 posts - 1367 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish
Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi

 
 Message 334 of 656
05 June 2012 at 11:08am | IP Logged 
I am still watching cartoons.
Janggeum's dream - cute Korean cartoon
Ghost files - Japanese
dbk - Japanese
unfortunately I have registered one Janggeum into my JP list.
but don't worry, I will instead just ignore one Japanese cartoon with same lenght in future.

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jessikt
Triglot
Groupie
Austria
ichestudiolangues.co
Joined 5831 days ago

98 posts - 102 votes 
Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French
Studies: SpanishA2, Swedish

 
 Message 335 of 656
05 June 2012 at 1:04pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
jessikt wrote:
LANGUAGE: German, Spanish, Swedish

CHALLENGE: 3 x Half Challenge (50 books, 50 movies in each language!)

CURRENT LEVEL: Just starting! I'm about a C1 in German, B1-2 in Spanish and complete beginner in Swedish

COMMENTS: I'm hoping this challenge will help me learn more about the cinema and literature of the three
languages I am interested in, as well as polishing my German and Spanish skills and giving me a jump-start
learning
Swedish! I will be posting about my progress in detail in my blog:
http://ichestudiolangues.com


You can register for Swedish and possibly for Spanish, but I am afraid that you are overqualified in German, since
B1 is the upper limit. You could do an Advanced Super Challenge in German though :-)


Oh no - what would the Advanced Super Challenge entail? :) 100 books, 100 movies + conversation?
1 person has voted this message useful



Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4906 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 336 of 656
05 June 2012 at 7:19pm | IP Logged 
UPDATE #9- Half Challenge + music in French and Hindi
New items marked with a *

The update is about 3 French music albums I've listened to since I mentioned the idea on the other super challenge thread yesterday. I'm calling music the dessert after the main course.


FRENCH FILMS

1. French in Action Lessons 2-4.
2. TV5 shows (1 hour 40 mins total).
3. On choisit pas ses parents.
4. French in Action lessons 5-7.
5. Cartoons on TV5 (about 2 hours in total).
6. French in Action lessons 8-10.
7. French in Action lessons 11-13
8. French in Action lessons 14-16
9. French in Action lessons 17-19
10. État de manque.
11. Various things on TV5. Mostly cartoons.


FRENCH BOOKS

1. Assimil New French with Ease.
2. Max et Mathilde en vacances (read about 20x).
3. Rémi et le mystère de Saint-Péray (read 3.3 times).


FRENCH MUSIC

*1. Françoise Hardy- “Comment Te Dire Adieu”- a French pop classic, lovely voice and clear lyrics. I’ve been listening to this several times a week.
*2. Guillaume Grande-“L’Amour est Laid”- nice modern pop, based around acoustic guitar, a bit like James Morrison and his ilk. I like this a lot, but have listened to it too much in the year since I got it. I hope he releases another album soon! Fairly clear singing.
*3. Lucienne Vernay with Les Quatres Barbus- “Songs in French for Children”- what can I say? Sounds a lot like 50s Disney songs. I bought it for my kids, but I listen to it more than they do! The singing is clear in most of the songs.



HINDI FILMS

1. Dhobhi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries).
2. Coolie.

HINDI BOOKS

Still nothing. (This is beginning to bug me!)

HINDI MUSIC
A lot on the way!


Edited by Jeffers on 05 June 2012 at 7:20pm



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