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New Super Challenge Discussion thread2014 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| 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 105 of 766 10 May 2014 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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What does the little "bomb" icon on the right mean?
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| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 106 of 766 10 May 2014 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
It means that person is "tha bomb"... ... but actually it means the person has a streak going. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 107 of 766 10 May 2014 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hey guys,
This SuperChallenge is pretty cool. For me it's giving me the 'push' to use more native materials, and for me the 'course collector' that's certainly a good thing. As I was slightly slow off the mark with this challenge and didn't really get going for a good few days or more into the challenge with my reading and watching I went on a mission and became rather enthused by the 'leader board' and climbing up the ladder some ways... I went from 41s to breaking into the top 20. But in my madness to read and read and watch and watch I began to wonder relative my language level (French B1) how effective watching movies really is. It so happens this article mimics some of my suspicions, adds a few more and elaborates in a balanced way on how useful it actually is to your goal of improving in a language depending on your level to watch foreign movies. Are You Wasting Your Time Watching Foreign Language Movies? Just to balance this post out a little I'd like to include the following link which says exactly why reading, and more precisely 'extensive reading' is so good for language learning: The inescapable case for extensive reading These articles may have come up before on HTLAL, but I just thought it would be worthwhile reflexion for some of us who's main goal after all is fluency (whatever that means for the individual) 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 108 of 766 11 May 2014 at 12:42am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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All I can say about the first article is: wait and see. Yes, his points against watching films have an element of truth. But you can find flaws with any language learning method. So I say, wait and see. Watch your 200 films in French (since you signed up for a double), and I'm pretty sure you will see significant benefit. In the first few months, you will no doubt think that the article is absolutely correct. But the more you watch, the more you will find that the language is becoming familiar.
Okay, you will probably gain more from reading your 200 books. But that half of the challenge is a much greater time commitment, and generally speaking more taxing. One thing I didn't get in the article is when the author wrote, "You can’t listen multiple times." I have watched the Hindi film Sholay at least a dozen times. In the last 2 years, I've watched Amélie 5-6 times. I'm now reading slowly through the script to Amélie, and I plan to watch it again a few times when I'm pretty sure I understand almost everything. What's interesting about this is that I find I understand most of the text simply because I've watched the film so many times with subtitles. So, clearly something has sunk in. The advice at the end of the article is actually pretty good advice for how to watch films. I would add one thing: find a few films that you really enjoy and wouldn't mind repeating. Then study the films. Jot down notes while watching them, and build up more notes as you go. Over the course of the Super Challenge watch them as many times as possible. Initially watch with subtitles if necessary, but after a couple times, you should probably be okay watching without subs. In other words, use the intensive approach with a few films. Over the course of the Super Challenge you should see great improvements in your understanding of those few films, but also improved comprehension of other films as well. To steal some advice from emk, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is dubbed pretty well in French, and transcripts are available. He has also recommended starting with documentaries, since the speaking is clearer and slower than the average film. I would add that another good option is 7 jours sur la planète, since you can read the nearly exact French subs while watching. Edited by Jeffers on 11 May 2014 at 12:44am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5164 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 109 of 766 11 May 2014 at 12:54am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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My 2C: watching dubbed series was quite comfortable after the first series. Watching
native films is still hard after 1 1/2 year of watching at least 10 minutes each day. Maybe reading scripts in the beginning will be the best thing to do in order to make sure you will actually become familiarized with the French employed in those films. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 110 of 766 11 May 2014 at 1:07am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
I think I'll be 'leaning' more on the reading side of things but still continue some watching of course. I will utilise more of the pause and play type method and Yabla I think as it makes you focus on the language. Then my entertainment/down time I could spend watching the movies/series. In Yabla I can watch short clips over and over and play a game in which you fill in the missing words from the dialogue. I know I need to hear language spoken at normal speed also so I won't ignore films and series but I will certainly try to use more active methods of study. I'm beginning to doubt the likelihood of me completing a 'double' given the time commitment in the last few days, which cannot be sustained when I return to work (i'm on leave), and that when I do use Yabla/pause and play method it takes me at least double the time to watch something- ie a 30 min episode of sth takes at least an hour, more if I enter some flashcards at the end, which I find is important if I want to get something out of what I watch. The thing for me too is to not drop my courses as I do indeed get benefit from them, so I need balance of decent learning strategies.
I totally agree, I found that point a little weak as well.
Sounds good to me :)
Yeah, I have been pondering whether I should buy Buffy, I think I will at some point. Documentaries sounds like a good idea too. As for 7 jours sur la planete, i need to look into that. I have the app on my phone but have not tried it out, but I think that would be different to what you're talking about, i'm sure a search online will land me in the right place, so I'll check it out. Thanks for your input Jeffers :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| surrealix Diglot Groupie New Zealand languagechallenge.su Joined 4602 days ago 66 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish Studies: French | Message 111 of 766 11 May 2014 at 2:25am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Thanks :). I'm glad everyone seems to like the facelift.
Yes. If you don't see books in the background, you're sill seeing the old design. It takes a while for some broswers to realise there's a new version of the page. The big discussion seems to be the daily sprint badge - and I'm happy to remove this (or more likely, convert it into something else). But before I do, I'll play devil's advocate and present a counter argument ;-).
The reason for adding daily sprint badges was actually to encourage people further down the list. Achieving the weekly streak badge is a long commitment and the payoff is months down the track. The daily badge gives a more immediate feedback for studying now rather than leaving thingns until later because you've got 18 months. In addition, even just 5 minutes every day for a week really helps to form the habit and mindset of doing some study - which is important if you're going to keep this up for over a year. For people starting mid-way through the challenge, or for people who let their study lapse, the daily badge is also a way to visibly "catch up" to people higher in the rankings. I've only just started, and having a small, acheiveable first goal is going to help with the kick-off. (It's interesting at the moment that the people who have daily badges seem to be fairly well spread through the list. Perhaps as time goes on those at the top will all end up with them, but given that quite a few people are still sitting on 0 / 0, some kind of inbalance is to be expected.)
I also like having a clean list with each book or film on its own line. There's an easy solution : I could group rows with the same title. 01-05-2014 until 12-05-2014 : "Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets" 492 pages
Yes, this is also another option, although I prefer the idea of grouping titles.
There are two points here. I've shrunk the row size for additional languages, so you can now see more of Serpent's entries on your 23" screen ;). Given we no longer have different super challenge types, sorting by individual entry rather than participant breaks up the front page a bit more and gives people more of a chance to climb in the rankings by focusing on one language for a while. What do others think about this? I've pushed the change to the live version, but it it's simple to switch this off again. You can still see the old ordering by clicking on the 'Participant' column.
Yes, streaks are per-language. It is the Super Challenge after all ;). And the time-zone thing has been tying my head into knots. At the moment, it counts according to the bot's timezone (you can see it at the bottom of the main page). You need to record one tweet between midnight each day for it to count.
It looks like this is probably a bug with the graphing library I'm using - I've logged it with the developers, but there's no knowing when or if it will be fixed. The work- around for the moment is simply to access your user page from the main list, or by typing in the URL directly without hitting refresh. Whew! I think that's it. The main points are : do we keep the daily badge? Do I group entries with the same title? And do we keep the new default ordering? Keep the comments coming :). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 112 of 766 11 May 2014 at 3:06am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
First comment: You are awesome, and thank you! :) My two cents: re: the daily badge: I can see either way, so I really don't have an opinion on that. I like the weekly badge. I think it'll be interesting to see how reading speed increases over the course of the whole challenge. re: grouping entries with the same title: Yes, I love this idea! re: the new default ordering: I really like it. I think it shows those who are focusing on only one or two languages and making more progress, which is the point of the challenge. And I like the fact that you can rank by participant and see it the old way, too. The only other request I have is to make more time in a day. Or cut my work hours (without cutting my pay!). But I think that's a little outside your abilities. :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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