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Super Challenge Registration/ Update 2012 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 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 585 of 656 09 October 2012 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Week 23: 26 books, 24 films (25% finished)
Film 24: La règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game; Jean Renoir, 1939). I've seen this before, and enjoyed it even more the second time - I knew the 'game' Renoir was playing, and it was great watching him play it out. It's a comedy on the surface, with daggers beneath. Highly recommended for classics fans. Maybe not so much for others. Film 25: Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010). This is a 5 1/2 hour (!) French miniseries from Canal+ about the life of Carlos the Jackal. I'm only on the first disc (of 3), and I'm hooked. There's a lot of tension and action, and the acting is great. There are no attempts at explaining his acts, or rationalizing them - it's a straightforward history of the Marxist-inspired radicals / terrorists of the 1970s. It's 'fiction,' but based on journalistic research. A lot of it is shocking. The main languages, so far, have been English, French, and Spanish, with a number of scenes in German, Arabic, and Japanese. The disc lists Hungarian and Russian also - this should be mandatory watching for HTLAL polyglots! With all the languages, I'll probably log the whole 5.5 hour series as one single movie for the challenge. The languages are also very clear, without a lot of slang and idiom - I even understood some of the Arabic! - which is a nice change from a lot of modern French movies, which have so much slang I can't understand a word. Books: Le père Goriot, Honoré de Balzac (1835) (300 pages) I finished 190 pages and just couldn't go on. I didn't like the characters, and I don't think Balzac did either. Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets, J.K. Rowling (1998) (365 p; on page 98). I look forward to the end of the day when I can curl up with HP. Edited by kanewai on 09 October 2012 at 9:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4531 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 586 of 656 10 October 2012 at 7:44am | IP Logged | ||
This has been in my queue for ages. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to get around to watching it soon. I am impressed and inspired by how far you have gone on the challenge already. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 alectejas Diglot Pro Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4510 days ago 5 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 587 of 656 10 October 2012 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going to sign up for the challenge (late)
LANGUAGE: Spanish CHALLENGE: FULL CURRENT LEVEL: B1? COMMENTS: I'll do movies, books, audiobooks and podcasts. This should be fun! 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 588 of 656 13 October 2012 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Update:Spanish 13%
Read 6.8/50 books "Ines del alma mia" "Oscar, agente secreto " Lugones (short stories) "Catedral del mar" Watched 6.6/50 films Tv "Colloqualspanish:8-15" Audiobook: "Poesia" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tamise Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom jllrr.wordpress.com/ Joined 5241 days ago 115 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English*, German, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese, Spanish | Message 589 of 656 13 October 2012 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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JAPANESE FILMS (28/100):
21. Naruto E13-16 22. イキガミ 23. Naruto E17-20 24. Kindaichi vol. 2 25. Naruto E21-24 26. Naruto E25-26 & Bamboo Blade E1-2 27. Bamboo Blade E3-6 28. Bamboo Blade E7-10 JAPANESE BOOKS (19.1/100): 10. Manga: Hikaru no Go Vol 1, Major Vols 17, 18 & 19 (Hikaru no Go is double length) 11. Kindaichi: Treasure Island Mysteries, Naruto Vols 2, 3 & 4, Bamboo Blade Vol 1 12. Naruto Vol 5, One Piece Vol 8, 探偵学園Q Vol 1 (Tantei Gakuen Q is double length) FRENCH FILMS (15/50): 13. 1 Episode CSI, M*A*S*H S1 E17-18 14. Buffy S1 E1-2 15. Indochine FRENCH BOOKS (12.2/50): 7. La fiancée du nil 8. BD: Une étude en rouge (1/3 of a book) GENERAL In Japanese, I've been mostly reading manga and watching anime - I hadn't wanted to do this at the beginning, but it then occurred to me that this is mostly what I want to read and watch, so I should just keep doing it. The one film I watched, Ikigami, is good - about a future society in which certain children are injected with a drug that will kill them when they get to late teens, early twenties. When this happens, they have 24 hours leave to do whatever they want to do. I've now read two manga without furigana (well, they both had some, but only really for names) which feels like a big step forward. [I don't understand what has furigana and what doesn't - the Kindaichi manga and the Tantei Gakuen Q manga are both by the same people, with Kindaichi arguably for a slightly older audience, and Kindaichi has full furigana and Tantei Gakuen Q has none...] In French, I finally got around to reading the two books I bought when last in Foyle's in London. One by Christian Jacq who I have always loved, and the other a graphic novel adaptation of A Study in Scarlet - this is translated from English and is very good. Well worth looking out for if you're a Holmes fan. Indochine is set in 1930s Vietnam and follows a female plantation owner and her adopted native daughter. It's a bit grim in places, but unlike the last film I saw in similar vein (The Sea Wall, set in Cambodia under French rule), I actually liked the characters. Beautifully shot too, with lots of Vietnam. Edited by Tamise on 13 October 2012 at 11:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4686 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 590 of 656 21 October 2012 at 6:16am | IP Logged | ||
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UPDATE - Added French Movie Entries 12-14
Finally watched an actual French movie! I've been working on listening comprehension with RFI broadcasts and reading Le Monde online, but nothing I wanted to list here until now. So far I've also finished half of HP2 in French and a third of Le Petit Nicolas, as well as half of George R. R. Martin's "A Clash of Kings" in Dutch (500 pages!). I'm also about 2/3 through another long Dutch audiobook (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). Hoping to rack up some serious points soon when I finish some of these epic projects. BOOKS (French) 5. ... FILMS, ETC. (French) 12. (Twitter Bot says I had enough extra minutes to reach 12, so blank entry here) 13. Ocean's 11 14. Le Professionel BOOKS (Dutch) 19. ... FILMS, ETC. (Dutch) 14. ... I am not entered in any Super Challenge for German, but I also am still reporting for my log: BOOKS (German) 9. ... FILMS, ETC. (German) 26-29. Der Sternwanderer (audiobook) 1 person has 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 591 of 656 23 October 2012 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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There were five movies playing this month dealing with the French Resistance and / or
Collaboration during WWII. I saw three of them, and none were any good. They were each bad in their own unique way, though, which led me to ponder all the different things we mean when we say a movie was "bad." Luckily they were balanced by some excellent videos. 25. Carlos (in progress). Discussed above. The second disc was even better than the first, and I'm looking forward to the third part. I'm only logging the full miniseries as one single movie. 26. Les quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, 1959). This was one of my friend's all-time favorite movies in college. I appreciated it - it's a classic that is definitely worth watching - but it's not quite on my all-time best list. 27. Monsieur Batignole (Gérard Jugnot, 2002). A wacky comedy about a butcher trying to smuggle three Jewish children out of Paris. The worst movie I've seen this challenge. It's the kind of movie where the kids escape the Nazis by kicking them in the balls, and the lead (and director) gives self-righteous speeches at the climax. 28. *** Incendies *** (Denis Villeneuve, 2010). And the best. I saw this on one of Songlines' posts. A mother requests in her will that her twins carry messages to Lebanon for the brother (whom they didn't know existed) and father (whom they thought was dead). The movie cuts back and forth between the Civil War and the twins' journey. Absolutely riveting, and note-perfect. 29. Les femmes de l'ombre (Female Agents; Jean-Paul Salomé, 2008). Just silly. The Brits assemble a group of French women (including a nurse, a secretary, a prostitute, and a good Catholic girl), gives them 24-hours of commando training, and drop them behind enemy lines on a top-secret mission. It's the kind of movie where they are parachuting into France in one scene, and in the next they've already infiltrated a German camp disguised as burlesque dancers and nurses. It was Charlie's Angels with more gore and a higher body count. 30. Un héros très discret (A Self Made Hero; Jacques Audiard, 1996). A boring man reinvents himself as a Resistance here. It's an intriguing idea, but the movie itself was dull. I think the lead was supposed to be lovable, but I found him to be more creepy than anything else. This was actually a typical French movie - lots of scenes of the lead staring silently out the window, lots of narration, and too many clichéd cinéma vérité moments of the hero scratching himself, or taking a piss, or moping after an afternoon of bad sex. So. I have actively disliked four of the past five movies I've seen at our local art house. I'm starting to lose faith in the owner's tastes. Edited by kanewai on 23 October 2012 at 9:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4686 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 592 of 656 25 October 2012 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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UPDATE - Added Dutch Movie Entries 15-24
Just finished a long Dutch audiobook, and now maybe I'm finally ready to try a French audiobook again. Hoping to finish HP2 in French soon, as well. For German, I'm also listening to Kafka in audiobook form. I read "Der Prozeß" a couple years ago, but it was a bit above my level at the time. Obviously I've gotten better in the interim, because I can follow the audiobook without trouble, and reading is always easier for me than listening to the audiobook, since I can slow down if I'm having trouble reading. I also note that in the last week I've had another one of those moments, where suddenly everything clears up. French, in both written and audible form, is now more or less intelligible for me, at least in clear, standard forms. I'd guess I'm now at B1 for listening and reading, after about 6 months of study with Assimil and the Super Challenge (including lots of undocumented use of RFI and Le Monde)! Speaking is at best A2, but I hadn't really done my Assimil active wave so well yet, so that may come along soon, too. BOOKS (French) 5. ... FILMS, ETC. (French) 14. ... BOOKS (Dutch) 19. ... FILMS, ETC. (Dutch) 15-24. 20,000 Mijlen Onder Zee I am not entered in any Super Challenge for German, but I also am still reporting for my log: BOOKS (German) 9. ... FILMS, ETC. (German) 29. ... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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