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Rdearman Super Challenge Log

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rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5234 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 137 of 158
28 May 2015 at 2:10pm | IP Logged 
--- Weekly Update ---
Well it is becoming obvious to me I'm not coming to complete this challenge in both languages. I have 31 weeks to read 87.3 books. If audio books counted as books then no problem I'd whiz through them because of all the time I'm going to be spending in my car over the next few months. But sitting down and reading isn't going to happen. I've done the math and even if I did zero overtime I'm going to spend 12 hours either at work or travelling there. Assuming 3 hours of discretionary time each evening plus 6 hours at the weekend I would have 651 hours to read 87.3 books. You're probably thinking, 'but that is over seven hours per book! That is only 7 pages per hour!'. But oddly, my wife and children expect me to talk to them, the dog wants a walk, the dishes need to be cleaned, the grass mown, and I read really slowly in French & Italian!

I'll see what next week brings, but I think I'm going to have to choose to carry on as I am, and fail in the book portion of the challenge in both languages, or try to complete one language. It sucks to have to choose. :(


--- SC Statistics ---
French : 57.8 books : 112.3 films
Italian : 54.9 books : 100.3 films

Reading Averages Change
French: 1.014 books per week --> 1.014 books per week
Italian: 0.969 books per week --> 0.963 books per week

The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 89.234
The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 84.753

--- Output Challenge Update ---

No output this week. See above statement about zero time. Although I could potentially record something in the car, so Output might not be a total loss.


--- Output Challenge Statistics ---
Italian : 1177 words : 80 minutes


---
Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges.
1 person has voted this message useful



Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5007 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 138 of 158
28 May 2015 at 3:11pm | IP Logged 
YAY YOU! Congratulations!

The reading time is one of the very few positive aspects of using the public transport. Unless you get into the classical situation described by Czech authors Šimek and Grossman (my translation, sorry about any imperfection): "I was standing on one foot only and it didn't even happen to by my own foot"

I totally understand your preference for audio material that leaves your hands free. At least one tiny piece of optimism: As you read, you get faster.

It looks like your SC-reading part's best chance is you catching cold and spending a week in bed with books :-D NOt that I'd wish you anything bad!

Or perhaps methods like making it clear it is your study/reading time while the children do their homework and something like that. It might even be motivational, depends on your children's age and character.
2 persons have voted this message useful



daegga
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Austria
lang-8.com/553301
Joined 4519 days ago

1076 posts - 1792 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian
Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic

 
 Message 139 of 158
28 May 2015 at 3:24pm | IP Logged 
You can secretly count audiobooks as books and be happy at the end that you secretly finished both SCs ;) The rules of the SC have been created by a book lover, it's not the alpha and omega of it all (you can officially count reading subtitles towards the audio part, but listening to a book not towards the reading part - odd).

I secretly count the books I read from January to April last year towards my Swedish challenge, I mean I've read them, why should it matter WHEN I read them? Which means I'm already done with that part :)

Edited by daegga on 28 May 2015 at 3:27pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5234 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 140 of 158
28 May 2015 at 3:26pm | IP Logged 
Cavesa wrote:
YAY YOU! Congratulations!

The reading time is one of the very few positive aspects of using the public transport. Unless you get into the classical situation described by Czech authors Šimek and Grossman (my translation, sorry about any imperfection): "I was standing on one foot only and it didn't even happen to by my own foot"

I totally understand your preference for audio material that leaves your hands free. At least one tiny piece of optimism: As you read, you get faster.

It looks like your SC-reading part's best chance is you catching cold and spending a week in bed with books :-D NOt that I'd wish you anything bad!

Or perhaps methods like making it clear it is your study/reading time while the children do their homework and something like that. It might even be motivational, depends on your children's age and character.


My daughters are 22 and 18, so they can do their own homework. LOL. My main problem is I'll be driving, so can't take the eyes off the road to read. Although I have seen people on the M25 reading. In fact I used to keep a book in my car just for the traffic jams! My plan for the commute however is Mandarin language tapes. So reading will have to be reserved for home time or lunch. :(

My reading speed had definitely improved since the start of the Super Challenge, perhaps I just need to be more strict with my reading times.
1 person has voted this message useful



rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5234 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 141 of 158
28 May 2015 at 3:30pm | IP Logged 
daegga wrote:
You can secretly count audiobooks as books and be happy at the end that you secretly finished both SCs ;) The rules of the SC have been created by a book lover, it's not the alpha and omega of it all (you can officially count reading subtitles towards the audio part, but listening to a book not towards the reading part - odd).

I secretly count the books I read from January to April last year towards my Swedish challenge, I mean I've read them, why should it matter WHEN I read them? Which means I'm already done with that part :)


Perhaps, I do like to read, and to date I've only counted books not web-pages or comic books. The method of calculation in order to count them for the SC has always put me off. I can probably complete one challenge if I just concentrate on it. For example my reading in French is much faster than Italian. Perhaps if I concentrated on that for a couple of months I would be able to complete it.

Tough decision though. :(
1 person has voted this message useful



Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5007 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 142 of 158
28 May 2015 at 3:37pm | IP Logged 
Even better, you can send your girls to party and two out of three communication requiring obstacles are out of way. You can send your wife to party or have a coffee with friends or to the hairdresser's and so on more regularily too. :-D :-D :-D And buy a sheep to mow the lawn for you, now that I am at the wild ideas. And read to your dog, now that your girls don't need a bedtime story anymore.

Yeah, being a driver is difficult in this area.

Sure, you can count the things just like you want, you are your own main judge. However, as reading and listening are two different skill sets, I would feel audiobooks more suitable to be treated like movies than books. But you could surely count in any non book reading you do if you have easier time just opening le monde online during a break at work instead of opening a book, for example.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6595 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 143 of 158
28 May 2015 at 9:29pm | IP Logged 
rdearman wrote:
I can probably complete one challenge if I just concentrate on it. For example my reading in French is much faster than Italian. Perhaps if I concentrated on that for a couple of months I would be able to complete it.

Tough decision though. :(

I know the frustration :( I've had it too.
And then I had it again a month later, having forgotten about my list and being even closer to reaching at least one star in several languages :D

Always keep your real goals in mind. Also consider your plans for the next SC, assuming we have one.
1 person has voted this message useful



rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5234 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 144 of 158
28 May 2015 at 11:13pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
rdearman wrote:
I can probably complete one challenge if I just concentrate on it. For example my reading in French is much faster than Italian. Perhaps if I concentrated on that for a couple of months I would be able to complete it.

Tough decision though. :(

I know the frustration :( I've had it too.
And then I had it again a month later, having forgotten about my list and being even closer to reaching at least one star in several languages :D

Always keep your real goals in mind. Also consider your plans for the next SC, assuming we have one.


If I were to do it again (assuming we have one) next year, I don't think having French & Italian would be a problem. My reading speed has probably doubled, and by the end of the year I expect it would improve a little more. But at the beginning of this SC I couldn't read very fast at all! So time spent vs pages read would be really different next time.

Although I might do Mandarin only. :) Because I like to make things hard for myself it seems.


1 person has voted this message useful



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