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Super Challenge Update thread 2014-15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4142 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 161 of 198 18 July 2015 at 4:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I love your updates, kanewai!
I'm doing well with books, but I'm falling behind with movies. I have to watch 43 movies between now and the end of December. I did the math, and it's a little over 150 minutes per week. I'm not sure I can make it, especially since we're going to be on a road trip for most of August! But I'll try! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4005 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 162 of 198 18 July 2015 at 5:29am | IP Logged | ||
Great update kanewai! Makes me wish I was learning Italian! Here is the Fandor Link for 20% off a subscription - or $8 month. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 163 of 198 14 August 2015 at 1:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Update 9b: French and Italian Books
As usual, I had much better luck with books than movies this round. I haven't updated in six months, so this list is going to look a lot more impressive than it is. The big news is I've made huge jumps in both my Italian and French reading. For Italian I've moved away from my kindle to paperback novels. That was a pleasant surprise - I wasn't sure if the reduced reading requirement this challenge would be intense enough to make these kinds of leaps. I'm glad that I was wrong. In part it helped that the kindle Italian dictionary isn't good, so I was already used to looking up words on my own. There are still days when I feel like I don't understand a word of what I'm reading, but there are others where the chapters just fly by. From the top: Jean Genet. Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs. 1944 
A semi-autobiographical story from the Paris underground, where a 'family' of hustlers, drag boys, rent boys, 'aunties,' and pimps is thrown into chaos by the arrival of a beautiful young assassin. I loved this book, but it is very graphic & not for everyone. Fred Vargas. Pars vite et reviens tard. 2001 
There is a murderer loose in Paris, and they are covering up their crimes - and creating panic - by making it look like the Black Death has returned to the city. Vargas's mysteries frustrate me. She creates great characters and atmosphere, but in both of her books I've read the main detective solves the crimes in an impossible manner. In Par vite commissaire Adamsberg identifies the murderer based upon nothing but a hunch. Literally. Suddenly he just knows that the murderer is present in the crowd. There are no clues or anything; he just knows who it is and makes an arrest. And this kind of thing pisses me off in detective novels. Current: Marcel Proust. Le Côté de Guermantes I. 1920 
I liked the first two volumes, but they were also frustrating at times. I am genuinely enjoying Proust at this point - it's less work now that I know his style. He's also much easier to read in hard copy than on kindle. The narrator is now a young man in Paris, but as delicate as ever. He's become obsessed with the Duchess of Guermantes, and has entered into Paris's salon society in an attempt to get closer to her. Characters from the first two books have reappeared, often in surprising ways. For instance, his best friend's girlfriend turns out to be a prostitute from Jeunes filles en fleurs. The narrator says nothing, of course. I use the website Proust, ses personnages to keep track of the characters. It's set up nicely - you can read up on a person's history and stop before you reach any spoilers. Umberto Eco. Il nome della rosa. 1980 
I read the book! Not the comic - I just liked that picture. And, seriously, OMG I read The Name of the Rose in Italian. This felt like a serious level-up. I wasn't sure I'd be able to understand Eco at my reading level, but I was impatient and wanted to give it a try. The book was much more accessible than I thought - once I learned some medieval vocabulary (which I'm sure will be useful if I'm ever exiled to an Italian monastery) and read up on 13th Century European history. He wasn't nearly as hard as other major Italian authors I've tried to read. Italo Svelvo. La coscienza di Zeno. 1923. (partial) 
The story of one stunningly neurotic early 20th century gentleman. I enjoyed the first part, where Zeno commits himself to an asylum to quit smoking, becomes convinced that the doctor is having an affair with his wife while he's locked up, and seduces a nurse in order to escape from the ward. He's totally pazzo, but kind of fun. Later in the book he just becomes pathetic. I put it back on the shelf after 70 pages. It's supposed to be one of the "founding novels" of the 20th century, the first novel about psychotherapy, and a major influence on James Joyce. Part of me things I should revisit the book one day. The other part of me thinks, I didn't like Joyce either. Paolo Giordano. La solitudine dei numeri primi. 2010. 
The story of two very damaged souls whose lives intersect over the years. It reminds me of the old Oprah's Book Club selections - a decent enough story with left-of-center characters and a bit of pop psychology. It was a pleasant read, and if I find it I'll check out Giordano's other novel, Il corpo umano, about young soldiers in Afghanistan. Garyb mentioned he didn't like the movie, and I don't think I would either. The book was fine, but I can see a movie version coming across is too trite and saccharin. Some things work better in print. Dante Alighieri. La divina commedia. Inferno. 1317 
I went to hell for this Challenge. It was fun. I highly recommend it. I'm not sure this helped with my Italian at all; I needed an English translation at every step. Still, the Italian I do know helped me appreciate the poetry of the original Toscana. I stopped at the center of the earth, having escaped the inferno, and now am facing the long climb back up to the surface through Purgatorio. Dino Buzzati. Il deserto dei tartari. 1940 
Giovanni Drogo is a young officer fresh out of the academy. He heads out to his first assignment, dreaming of romance and glory and adventure. Instead he ends up at an isolated post overlooking a barren desert where, once, maybe, maybe not, centuries ago, the Tartars invaded. I really enjoyed this one; it was a surprisingly gripping read for a novel where not much happens. This was one of the few Italian books on Les cent livres du siècle. Current: Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo (Survival in Auschwitz). 1947 
I thought I knew about the camps, but I've never read a first-person account. And I knew the crimes, but Primo Levi is writing about more than this. His focus is on the people he met in the camps, about their psychological experiences, and how a few of them survived. It's absolutely stunning act of witnessing. If This Is a Man You who live safe In your warm houses, You who find, returning in the evening, Hot food and friendly faces: Consider if this is a man Who works in the mud, Who does not know peace, Who fights for a scrap of bread, Who dies because of a yes or a no. Consider if this is a woman Without hair and without name, With no more strength to remember, Her eyes empty and her womb cold Like a frog in winter. Meditate that this came about: I commend these words to you. Carve them in your hearts At home, in the street, Going to bed, rising; Repeat them to your children. Or may your house fall apart, May illness impede you, May your children turn their faces from you. Edited by kanewai on 14 August 2015 at 2:05am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5791 days ago 636 posts - 708 votes Speaks: Russian*, FrenchC1, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Studies: Ancient Greek, Hindi | Message 164 of 198 14 August 2015 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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French:
The challenge is over, I've reached 100 books, but I am still reading, slowly, and enjoy a lot "Les yeux jaunes des crocodiles". Spanish (close to half-challenge): Reading "Niebla" by Miguel de Unamuno, quite interesting. For film part, the last time it was mainly news (TV/radio). Japanese: I am reading the parallel text of "Rage of angels" and watching "Yamato nadeshiko shichi henge" series. Turkish: Mostly, reading adopted fairly tales. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 165 of 198 14 August 2015 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | ||
Congratulations!!! That is amazing! Please tell us what kind of improvements you have seen linguistically, and what other benefits you have seen (learned more about the culture, enjoyed the literature etc). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5791 days ago 636 posts - 708 votes Speaks: Russian*, FrenchC1, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Studies: Ancient Greek, Hindi | Message 166 of 198 15 August 2015 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks a lot, Christina! Definitely, extensive reading/watching help a lot to improve comprehension skills in more
enjoyable way than working with classical language courses. Some books I just enjoyed, regardless of the study goals (for example, "La casa de los espíritus"); others were useful for learning more about the culture (like "Short stories about Japan" book, adopted by I. Frank method, which describe numerous Japanese traditions, for example Girl's day, with description of dolls displayed for the occasion). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4249 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 167 of 198 05 January 2016 at 4:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for this challenge. I finished my 100th "book" on the 30th, and my 100th "movie" on the 31st. It was definitely a help with my Spanish.
I definitely saw an improvement in Spanish while doing the challenge. It's been quite a while since this challenge started, but at the beginning of the challenge, I was looking up/highlighting quite a few words. In the last week, I read a book on my Kindle that was 352 pages (the English version, at least), and it only took me a few days to read it, while I understood most of what was going on in the book. I can listen to the news in Spanish and have a good idea of what is going on, although I still miss a lot when I'm listening to talk radio or something like that. My focus language is now Russian, so if they do another Super-Challenge later this year, I'll do it in Russian, but I am reading the Bible in Spanish this year, so I might do a half-challenge in Spanish as well (especially since it wouldn't be that hard to listen to the news in Spanish a couple of times a week). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 168 of 198 05 January 2016 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the end I fell short of 100 pages. If I had focused more on reading during Christmas time it would have worked out, but in the end spending time with my loved ones was more important.
Looking at my reading level at the beginning of the challenge, I'm surprised I got so close! Back then I was happy to get the gist. Now I get a lot more. It's not effortless yet and I still use a dictionary so I don't miss details, but I've seen a huge improvement throughout those 20 months. Listening got better as well because I learned new words, but not as markedly. I'm glad I had very varied reading materials (young adult fiction, translated novels, diaries/memoirs, popular nonfiction (sentimental essays, popular psychology), a thorough introduction to Korean culture/history/economy..., Korean literature (novels, short stories). Overall a great experience which gives me a sense of achievement. But I'm also glad it's over. It's time to study other languages ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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