patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4530 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 569 of 656 21 September 2012 at 5:34pm | IP Logged |
Continuing on my strategy of predominately watching, not reading at this point of the challenge. I am reading basic texts from course books, but I have avoided trying to read too much yet. My German is definitely getting better. I am able to get quite involved in dramas. I am still holding off watching some of the German cinema classics that I am keen to watch, but want to wait until I can appreciate them more fully.
When I get to about 100 movies I'll start reading in earnest.
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74. Klapperschlange. Scifi. Kurt Russell goes into ex-NYC -- since 1988 an anarchistic penal colony -- to save the president of the USA. The president is played nicely by Donald Pleasence. 7/10.
73. Pandorum. Solid scifi/horror of (space)ship of lost souls; filmed in Berlin in English. 6/10
68-72. Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - 13 Episodes. For some reason I found the German hard to follow at first, but things got progressively easier as I watched the season. Since the episodes are a little over 40 minutes long, I am counting the 13 episodes as five movies. 7/10
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grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5299 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian
| Message 570 of 656 21 September 2012 at 8:26pm | IP Logged |
I am registering late for the Super duper challenge in Spanish.
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Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5392 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 571 of 656 21 September 2012 at 9:37pm | IP Logged |
grunts67 wrote:
I am registering late for the Super duper challenge in Spanish. |
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Good luck!
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Marikki Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5492 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Spanish, Swedish Studies: German
| Message 572 of 656 22 September 2012 at 8:35pm | IP Logged |
¡Olé!
¡I've read 10 000 pages in Spanish!
Although I've also watched some films (45 x 90 minutes in total) and written something every now and then
(33 x 200 words) my main interest has been to read, read and read until reading in Spanish would be at least
as effortless as reading in English or in Swedish already is to me.
I'm not quite there yet, but it seems inevitable that sooner or later I will get there. I already am reading novels
in Spanish more for the joy of reading than to learn the language and definitely won't stop reading in Spanish
now. I'll slow down though to watch more films and read in other languages too.
Another concrete achievement that the 10 000 read pages has brought along is that I'm now comfortable with
moving Spanish from "Learning" to "Speaks" category in my HTLAL profile.
If (or rather: when) I begin extensive reading in Spanish again I will switch the Spanish Super Challenge to
the Advanced Super Challenge.
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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 573 of 656 23 September 2012 at 1:07pm | IP Logged |
Marikki wrote:
¡Olé!
¡I've read 10 000 pages in Spanish!
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Well done! That's a sure sign to the rest of us that it is at least possible!
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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 574 of 656 23 September 2012 at 1:46pm | IP Logged |
Congratulations, Marikki! Estoy impresionada.
I'm plugging along with Casi una mujer, which is certainly getting easier. It's the first adult Spanish book I've
really read. The others were for children or adolescents. But persistence has its rewards! Still, I'm just short of
1000 pages total. But that's certainly the most I've ever read, even with Spanish literature classes. Still dreaming
of the day when I'm reading with true ease ...
Last weekend I watched "Como Agua para Chocolate," which I had read in English many years ago. My
comprehension continues to improve, to the point where sometimes I haven't glanced at the subtitles in a while.
If a get stuck, I try to figure out what I missed in Spanish.
I'll sometimes try to read while I wait for my daughter to finish one of her after school classes, but waiting in a
room with other parents and young children isn't always conducive to deciphering Spanish. The quiet morning is
so much better for me. Maybe I can finish this chapter while she's still asleep.
Peliculas: (11/50) 22%
11. Como Agua Para Chocolate
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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 575 of 656 24 September 2012 at 4:58pm | IP Logged |
I’ve had to take several breaks for various reasons, so I now have to accept that I will never manage 100 books by the old rules. However I don’t think I will have any problems with reading 100 books, maybe more, according to the new rules. I’m also struggling to get enough writing done. It takes me hours just to write a simple essay with about 150 words, so it’s hard to get time for it.
I’ve tried to condense my list here a little. It was getting unwieldy. New stuff is marked with an asterisk*.
Movies:
1. となりのトトロ (Tonari no Totoro) «My Neighbor Totoro»
2. 魔女の宅急便 (Majo no Takkyūbin), “Kiki’s Delivery Service”- twice
3. 歩いても歩いても (Aruitemo Aruitemo) “Still Walking” – thrice
4. 雨月物語 (Ugetsu Monogatari)”Tales of Moonlight and Rain” thrice
5. Tokyo Sonata
*6. 未来講師めぐる (Mirai Kousi Meguru) «Future Teacher, Meguru» - 10 episodes
Books:
1. ハリー・ポッター (Harry Potter) books 3-6
*2. ドラえもん (Doraemon) – books 1-3
*3. What’s Michael? – book 1
*4. 動物のお医者さん (Doubutsu no Oishasan) «Animal Doctor» - book 1
Writing:
1. Wrote 4 lang-8 entries totaling 756 words
*2. 秋と勉強 (173 words)
*3. 秋嵐 (134 words)
*4. 質問 (81 words)
*5. オフテンオセン (133 words)
UPDATE
MOVIES
Mirai Kousi Meguru is a dorama (TV show) about a teacher named Meguru who works at a cram school. Whenever she eats too much, she sees people as they will be 20 years in the future. This is something that runs in the family and her grandfather has the same condition. Her ability gives her knowledge of the future and therefore the ability to change it. The show is heavy on the corn and ham, but thoroughly enjoyable. I was disappointed that there were only 10 episodes. It is also supposed to be fairly easy to understand for people whose Japanese isn’t so strong. I still struggled to understand much, but I think I may have understood more than usual.
BOOKS
Doraemon: This is a manga (comic) about Doraemon, a robot-cat with a four-dimensional pocket on his belly and he owner, a boy named Nobita. Nobita is a failure at almost everything, so Doraemon was sent from the future by Nobita’s descendants to help him. Whenever Nobita has trouble, which is just about all the time, Doraemon reaches into his pocket to bring out some fabulous device from the future, which usually ends up causing even more trouble.
What’s Michael?: This is also a manga about a cat. It is supposed to be popular among foreigners since it is fairly easy to read, and I have to agree that it is one of the easiest things I’ve read. I love cats, but I’m glad not to own Michael as he is rather annoying at times. I found the story a bit confusing as Michael seems to have a variety of owners with no explanation as to why. He was also killed in the very first story which should have made for a rather short book, but somehow he was there in the second story, again without any explanation as to how or why. He was killed a few more times, but that doesn’t really seem to faze him. I can’t say that this manga made me want to run out and buy the rest of the series, but the drawings of the cats were fantastic. The illustrator really captured the essence of catliness.
Doubutsu no Oishasan: This is another manga, this time about life at a veterinary school. I can’t say that the stories are overwhelmingly exciting. Nothing much really happens, or perhaps I just didn’t understand enough. It seems mostly to be stories about animals and students with a few odd characters thrown in. It was a perfectly OK read, just not exciting.
As usual, see my blog (link under my name) or my TAC log for more in depth reviews.
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Marikki Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5492 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Spanish, Swedish Studies: German
| Message 576 of 656 30 September 2012 at 11:10pm | IP Logged |
Thank you Tamise and vw girl!
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I've now begun with German and I decided to try a new approach to reading with it. Instead of starting right away with adult books I wanted to try whether children's books would offer a nicer and softer landing to reading. So I read "The little dragon Coconut goes to school/ Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss kommt in die Schule".
Now I can say that even if it is obvious that my vocabulary sucks, it is also obvious that I haven't forgotten nearly as much of my school German as I feared, if any. My level of understanding was such that I think I will try an adult book next and see what happens.
Edited by Marikki on 30 September 2012 at 11:11pm
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