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Super Challenge Registration/ Update 2012

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kanewai
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/kanewai
Joined 4886 days ago

1386 posts - 3054 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 377 of 656
19 June 2012 at 9:40pm | IP Logged 
After a string of movies that I didn't like and didn't finish, I finally hit a winning
streak:

7. French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1954)
8. Coco avant Chanel (Anne Fontaine, 2009)
9. Le hérisson (Mona Achache, 2009)

French Cancan is a musical comedy about the founding of the Moulin Rouge. It's
fantastic. I enjoyed watching it, and wish that I hadn't returned it because I
wouldn't mind watching it again. I can't remember how the French was (easy? hard?
slang?) as I forgot that I was reading subtitles. Absolutely recommended!

Coco avant Chanel - Audrey Tatou plays Coco Chanel before she became famous (or
interesting, as a lot of critics have written). It's more about her life as mistress
to a French duke (or something) than anything to do with fashion. Like so many French
movies I've seen recently, it has a great actress and a mediocre director. But: the
French was crisp and clear, there was no argot, and so from a language-study viewpoint
this was a good choice.

Le hérisson is based on the book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I have
friends who loved the book in translation, and it's on my to-read list for when my
French is better. I saw it at the local art house; it's doing the film festival circuit
and I don't think it's on video yet. From IMDB: Paloma is a serious and highly
articulate but deeply bored 11-year-old who has decided to kill herself on her 12th
birthday. Fascinated by art and philosophy, she questions and documents her life and
immediate circle, drawing trenchant and often hilarious observations on the world
around her. But as her appointment with death approaches, Paloma finally meets some
kindred spirits in her building's grumpy janitor and an enigmatic, elegant neighbor,
both of whom inspire Paloma to question her rather pessimistic outlook on life.


It's a lovely movie, with a few small missteps. The French is clear and crisp. I'd also
recommend it.

This is interesting: one of the leads, Togo Igawa, doesn't speak French and so
learned his lines phonetically. It's an impressive feat.

On deck:

10. La tête en friche (Jean Becker, 2010) (at the theater)
11. Le carrosse d'or (Jean Renoir, 1954)
12. Le dîner de cons (Francis Veber, 1998)
13. La fille du RER (André Téchiné, 2009)

and a warning
Prometheus made absolutely no sense whatsoever, including this one that should
make HTLAL regulars and xeno-linguists cry: the android spends two years studying every
ancient earth language, and at the end uses some kind of regression-analysis to learn
how to speak and read the alien's language from 20,000 years ago. (and this is
all in the first ten minutes, so I'm not spoiling the plot!).


Edited by kanewai on 19 June 2012 at 9:46pm

1 person has voted this message useful



maydayayday
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5216 days ago

564 posts - 839 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2
Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese
Studies: Urdu

 
 Message 378 of 656
19 June 2012 at 9:51pm | IP Logged 
Thanks!
Coco avant Chanel is on my list.
1 person has voted this message useful



microsnout
TAC 2010 Winner
Senior Member
Canada
microsnout.wordpress
Joined 5468 days ago

277 posts - 553 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 379 of 656
19 June 2012 at 10:57pm | IP Logged 
Update #13

66/100 Films

"Apparences" (10 episodes of 45 min)

"Le dîner de cons" (Movie)

"19-2", Season 1 (10 Episodes of 45 min each)

"30 Vies", Season 2 (60 episodes of 22 min each)
"30 Vies", Season 1 (60 episodes of 22 min each)

"Toute la vérité", Season 3 (10 episodes of 45 min each)
"Toute la vérité", Season 2 (20 episodes of 45 min each)
"Toute la vérité", Season 1 (20 episodes of 45 min each)

****

This series "Apparences" from Radio-Canada is just one story of 10
episodes, not a continuing series.   I watched this program back in the winter in Montreal but there are still a lot of nuances that I am missing
so I expect to watch it yet again in the future some time. It is the type of drama that even in English I need to see several times to catch all the
details so it was even more challenging in French. It is a mystery about a missing person who in the very first episode fails to turn up at her
birthday party with her twin sister but it is a story based on dialog not action in any form so you need to listen attentively or you will be soon
lost. In this regard it was very different than the police based series "19-2" that I watched which was as expected much more action based.
Interestingly, the web site for the series contains a writing competition (concours) and the winning entry (Arabesques et Puma Roses) was
written by the French tutor I hired last winter in Montréal, a teacher of French literature seeking extra work because of the ongoing student
strike in Québec. This was the last of the TV content I will watch for a while and I will now turn to a collection of 34 movies to complete the
100.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6594 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 380 of 656
21 June 2012 at 12:38am | IP Logged 
Lol I've just used #changechallenge twice, switching Portuguese to 50/50 and then to 100/100, with only Brazilian Portuguese counting for the audio as I need more exposure to it.
Now I want another books only challenge though... It really makes me feel guilty that other people are doing the challenge in Belarusian and Croatian (and to a lesser extent Ukrainian) but I'm not. OK now I am. Signed up with Croatian "books" lalala.

I'm also very near what's for me a major milestone, almost 40% done in Polish.
1 person has voted this message useful



enrdbrow
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 4569 days ago

19 posts - 30 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 381 of 656
21 June 2012 at 9:08am | IP Logged 
REGISTRATION

LANGUAGE: French

CHALLENGE: Super Challenge (100 books and 100 films)

CURRENT LEVEL: French A2

COMMENTS:
I’ve dipped in and out of the French language for a few years now, but I’ve never been able to push it past A2. Hopefully, after this challenge, I’ll finally make it to B1!
1 person has voted this message useful



LangWanderer
Diglot
Pro Member
Australia
digintoenglish.com
Joined 4535 days ago

74 posts - 97 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 382 of 656
22 June 2012 at 3:04am | IP Logged 
REGISTRATION

LANGUAGE: Korean

CHALLENGE: Super Duper (100 books, 100 films, 100 30 minute blocks of conversation)

CURRENT LEVEL: A2

COMMENTS: Of all the challenges I'm entering, this is the one in which I have the most chance of succeeding. My motivation is very high - I'll be applying for some jobs in Korea at the end of the year and possibly for a Korean Government scholarship next year.

-----

LANGUAGE: French

CHALLENGE: Half (50 books, 50 films)

CURRENT LEVEL: At a guess probably B1, though I've been higher in the past.

COMMENTS: I'm aiming to bring my reading level back to where it was after three years of university study and to improve my listening skills (from a low base!).
1 person has voted this message useful



Tamise
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
jllrr.wordpress.com/
Joined 5240 days ago

115 posts - 161 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Dutch
Studies: French, Japanese, Spanish

 
 Message 383 of 656
23 June 2012 at 9:59am | IP Logged 
23/6/12 Update (stuff read/watched previously in italics)

JAPANESE FILMS:

1. Ozamu Tezuka's Metropolis
2. Babylon 5 Season 1 Episodes 1-2
3. Babylon 3 Season 1 Episodes 3-4
4. Gremlins
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
6. Love My Life

7. Babylon 5 Season 1 Episodes 5-6
8. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

More B5, one complete film, and about half of HP2 (will watch the rest today, but got bored with it earlier). I'm coming to the conclusion I need to get more films as none of the ones I have really grab me right now. One of the ones I wanted to watch has hard-coded English subs (as did Love My Life) - I find this really annoying as it means I'm forced to have the English subs even if I don't want them. I may try to get some Japanese films when I'm in Amsterdam and Brussels next month, so that if they have hard-coded subs they're at least not in English and will probably be much easier to ignore.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was really good, and I'll definitely watch it later to catch the bits I missed this time around. Thanks to those who recommended it here.

JAPANESE BOOKS:

1. 齋藤孝のイッキによめる!名作選 小学1年生
2. Grader Readers Level 1 vols 2 and 3
3. まんが日本昔ばなし 16-20
4. 図書館ねこヂューイ (Dewey the Library Cat: A True Story)

5. four volumes of One Piece manga + 1 Young Kindaichi Case Files
6. 10分で読めるお話一年生

For any one with an interest in mysteries and comics, I would really recommend the Young Kindaichi Case Files series (金田一少年の事件簿) - they're really fun and normally good mysteries. TokyoPop issued translations of about half the series a while back and the fact that there were more untranslated ones out there was one of the reasons I really wanted to be able to read Japanese.

The other book this time is short stories, and I really didn't get much, which is bad as it's a book for 1st graders. In part the problem was that I was reading on a really noisy train, but I think longer stories help in picking up context.

FRENCH FILMS:

1. NYPD Blue Season 1 Episodes 1-2
+ 1 more episode

Maybe not the most authentic way to start on French, but I had the DVDs handy and they have a French dub. I've not seen the series before, and watching it in French means I don't have to listen to David Caruso which is a win. I'd forgotten how fast spoken French is, and there's a fair bit slang in here, so not getting as much as I'd like, but I'm sure that'll improve.

FRENCH BOOKS:

1. Chez les Flammands

My first Maigret and a very enjoyable read. I was surprised at how easy this was (in relative terms, I didn't get everything). Like a couple of others, Agatha Christie would normally be my go to for straightforward reads, but I think Georges Simenon could also fit in that category. Certainly going to read more of him for the challenge.

GENERAL

I'm glad I decided to pick up French. Now trying not to get too much French stuff though... After the speed I went through the Maigret novel, I've started to wonder if a full challenge might be possible, but I'll not decide yet. My reading speed in French is way higher than it is in Japanese, and I don't want to be tempted to do more French than Japanese.

Like several others, I'd love to make the book totals by the old rules, so will keep the count here and at my blog by those rules. I'll put page numbers to the bot for things that are over 100ish and keep that count there. If I make it by the new rules, I'll still be very pleased.
1 person has voted this message useful



Vārds
Bilingual Diglot
Newbie
Latvia
Joined 4907 days ago

24 posts - 41 votes
Speaks: Russian*, Latvian*
Studies: German

 
 Message 384 of 656
23 June 2012 at 2:20pm | IP Logged 
Just watched episode of Tatort (episode 806). Action is taking place in Lucern, Switzerland and characters are speaking Hochdeutsch with hard Swiss accent.

It was fun :) First couple of minutes I was pressing "Pause" like after every sentence, but then it just clicked and I found that "Swiss Hochdeutsch" is easier to understand because of very clear pronunciation, like "zwischen achtzehn Uuurrrr nullll nullll unD achtzehn Uuurrr drrrreisssiG" (with rolling "R"s and very clear and stressed "D"s and "G"s at the end of the words).


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