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Super Challenge/Adv, Cha. Reg, Upd, 2013 | ||
Tags: Organization | Super Challenge | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5021 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 121 of 199 17 August 2013 at 10:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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I haven't quit, but I haven't updated the twitter bot in ages. I got frustrated because it wouldn't update properly. I've watched way over 100 hours of programs, and just about got in 50 hours of conversation.
I need to start cracking on the writing part ASAP. I reckon I can finish that before the end of the year. The books part though.... I've been working 13 hour days for months now so I have literally not had the time, but I've got just one more week of hard work ahead before I can adjust my priorities. My reading speed isn't too bad now, but I don't know whether I'm in with a shot at completing or not, but I'll give it a damn good go. I have a small stack of books for teenagers by Carlos Luis Zafon awaiting my attention. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| RMM Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5226 days ago 91 posts - 215 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 122 of 199 17 August 2013 at 11:58am | IP Logged | |||||
I really like this idea, although I would like options above 100 also, especially if the length of the challenge is left the same. When you take into account how many variations there are in number of languages, challenges (full, half, advanced), and in the four categories of materials/activities completed (books, movies, conversations, writing), it’s pretty clear almost everyone is doing radically different challenges already anyway--not to mention someone starting at A1 is really doing something different from the person starting at B1. Why not go ahead and make it more flexible and customizable? That would be a lot more practical I would think for those of us who are doing more than one language (which is most of us). In each of our languages, we are going to be at different places of development and have varying strengths and weaknesses. Why not let us to do more movies if we have a listening comprehension problem in Spanish and more conversations in French if that’s where we need the most practice? That way we can make the challenge really fit our own personal situations and future goals for each language better. Beyond this, the reading section is the most time consuming, as the current results generally show. I think we should be allowed to take that into account when deciding what we would find challenging for each of our languages. Frankly, I don’t think that 100 films per 20 months is really all that much of a challenge. In some instances, I’ve actually held myself back on the films because I didn’t want to be done with them too early in the challenge, when I still had so many books, conversations, and writings to do. 100 books in 20 months, however, is a tremendously difficult and time consuming task in my opinion. If someone, for example, could do 150 movies, 100 conversations and writings, and 50 books, that would come much closer to balancing out the time and effort expended for each activity, so that one’s language skills could grow in a more balanced way. If not that, then perhaps it might be better just to make a book unit smaller, maybe 50 pages (that would make the rankings on the Twitter page fairer too really). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 123 of 199 17 August 2013 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with your points, but one thing that bugs me about the Super Challenge is the idea that part of the challenge was a 100 books. It's a 10000 page challenge, or 2.5 million word challenge, but not a 100 books. At my current rate I will read less than 25 books to finish the challenge. Perhaps a 2.5 million word challenge is better? If we count words it's a lot easier to equate graphic novels and other sorts of media. Personally I like the idea of doing a 50 BOOK challenge next year, but that's probably too extreme for most people. Edited by patrickwilken on 17 August 2013 at 1:02pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| RMM Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5226 days ago 91 posts - 215 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 124 of 199 17 August 2013 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I understand your point, but really I thought the shift to 100 pages made it fairer and easier to track how much you're really doing. I thought it was an excellent change--the only complaint I have is that I think 100 pages was still too big a figure! Calling a 400 page book and a 100 page book the same thing in regard to the challenge lets in tremendous variation in what participants are actually doing. I can't help think that it would actually encourage and prod people to read little books also, instead of what they are most interested in or would benefit them the most. I think counting/estimating words is a good idea for graphic novels, etc., but I wonder if having to do that for each book would not turn more people off?
As far as semantics go, I would be more than happy to call them "book units" or "reading units" rather than books, although "books" is just shorter and easier to use, even though in this instance it is inaccurate, as you note. Besides, if the change to 100 pages hadn't been made, probably only one or two people would have finished the reading section (if that) and even more people would have dropped out along the way at trying to do such an extraordinarily demanding, almost undoable for the average, non-speed-reading person, type of challenge (and that esp. goes for those learning more than one language, who are not eager for the languages they are working on to get wildly imbalanced by spending extraordinary amounts of time reading books for only one language). How you count books or how many languages you are trying to get through really wouldn't matter, though, provided we can select how many units we want to set as our goal. In that scenario, if things look impossible, just set the challenge numbers lower, or if you think you are not reading enough for the challenge, just set the goal number higher. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 125 of 199 17 August 2013 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
What about just calling them pages or words. It just seems dishonest (not you - just in general) to say I completed a 100 book challenge, when any reasonable collection of books would have many many more words/pages in them. We might as well call this a 10000 book challenge (1 page = 1 book) or 2.5 million book challenge (1 word = 1 book). Edited by patrickwilken on 17 August 2013 at 3:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 126 of 199 17 August 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I call them "hundreds of pages". It doesn't sound good or stylish but it's the simple truth.
Don't take my optimism away, it is already a very rare thing in my brain :-) I just did a quick count. I am studying for an exam and will be fully available for the challenge in about three weeks. But I am still doing small bits. So, after that, I'll need to spend about 107 minutes on watching tv series a day (not much of a trouble since I mostly watch during the meals) and to read about 276,3 pages a day, which is about 5 hours of reading (I read usually between 40 and 60 pages per hour extensively, depends on the book of course). That is a lot but it is still possible. I didn't start at A1, I started at passive C1/C2 English and B2 French. And I don't work, I study. It requires a lot of my time but I have much fewer extra duties compared to people who have kids or similar responsibilities. I can get most of that time by eliminating wrong ways to spend my free time. And I use the days that are asking to be a reading day or tv watching day to get ahead of my plan whenever I can. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5394 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 127 of 199 17 August 2013 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cavesa, I love your enthusiasm. Go for it!! :D
I wonder how hard it would be to let us choose our own number. Granted, this is turning it into a "Make your own challenge" kind of thing, rather than Cristina's original idea of a Super Challenge. But - from the looks of things now - her Super Challenge is obviously not what the masses are interested in. (Although, I have to say - Cristina - it was an amazing idea, and I am thrilled you suggested it. My Spanish has improved leaps and bounds since I dedicated myself to the reading section of the challenge. The only problem is - the more I learn and the better I get with it, the more I realize there is so much more to learn! LOL) I think a "Make your own challenge" would work better for the majority of folks, especially those of us who want to focus on more than one language. I really think the "Super Challenge" idea is unrealistic if we are looking at 12 months, especially the reading portion, so it would be nice if we could create our own, based on what would be a challenge for us. I wonder how hard it is to learn the programming stuff for this type of thing. Does anyone know of any free courses online to learn this kinda stuff? I wouldn't even have a clue where to look! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 128 of 199 17 August 2013 at 5:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks, Kerrie. :-)
It wasn't meant for 12 months. We started in the middle of the year, I think it was 18 months. Make your own challenge is kind of a good thing, in my opinion. Just next time, I won't take two Advanced (200+200) challenges. I am not that crazy. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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