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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 |  | |
| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5242 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 199 06 January 2013 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I watched 2 more uninspiring Spanish films: El Juego de la verdad, about a man who thinks he's going to die &
confesses a desire to sleep with his best friend's fiancee. Again, except for slang, I could understand most of it. The 2nd film, Solo con tu pareja, was just painful to watch. I finished it just because I have started so many & stopped watching ... my total will never increase like that! Peliculas: (18/50) 36% 17. El Juego de la verdad 18. Solo con tu pareja Libros: (1144) 22% 5. Casi una mujer 6. Reading La Ciudad de las bestias, por Isabel Allende, 50 pages in. Much more my level. Discouraging, however, because it's a 5th grade level!!! Still words I have to look up because I want to learn, not that I can't figure out the context of the story. I got discouraged with Malinche because there were so many descriptions & unknown vocabulary. I'll return to it later, I'm sure. Just felt I couldn't do it justice at this time. As I don't do Twitter, am I still registered for the Challenge? Guess it's OK if I'm not, as I'm doing this to improve & be part of a motivating group. Don't expect to be setting any speed records! Oh, I found an old book I had purchased about 2 years ago ... Dirty Spanish. A review of some sections should help my comprehension, even if it's not the kind of vocab I want to have ready! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 199 25 January 2013 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bookkeeping
64/100 films, 36/100 books. Yay! I just got caught up on my Super Challenge bookkeeping for the first time in about 2 months. This involved taking a stack of half-read books off the shelf and seeing what pages were bookmarked, and seeing what DVD I was on in various series. I've also been working on a 10 page/day consistency goal since Thanksgiving. I just multiplied 54 days by 10 and recorded that. But some of these days were really 8+ hours of reading Le Monde, Topito.com and random blogs, which is easily 100+ pages for me these days. So 540 pages is probably a considerable underestimate, but there are days when I'd rather read French than keep detailed records. :-) Recommendations If you're looking for some fun French reading, let me suggest you take a look at bandes dessinées, which are basically the French version of graphic novels. These are available for a wide range of ages, and they cover an enormous number of subjects. You can find a list of 10 BD series (with sample pages and reviews!) in my log. Some particular highlights include: - Persepolis is awesome and has tons of modern conversational French. - Les mondes d'Aldébarran is science fiction (with cool alien animals) and a coming-of-age story for a teenage audience (about PG-13 to R by American movie standards). It's very accessible, and a great source for essential vocabulary like s'en aller. - Moi René Tardi is a true story about life in a World War II prison camp, with 188 text-heavy pages and lots of advanced vocabulary. You can find sample pages and more suggestions in my log! And see Quique's log, too. An average BD runs about 45 pages of text, and has at a little over 150 words per page. Given that a typical adult novel has about 500 words per page, I recommend counting typical BDs as about 15 pages, as opposed to the 10 pages suggested for a manga of the same length. Results Wow, thank you so much for starting this challenge, Solfrid! When I started the Super Challenge, I could plow through a French book like Le tour du monde en 80 jours in several weeks of pretty intense reading, with lots of comprehension problems. A BD took several evenings of bed time reading. Today, I'm 50% of the way through the Super Challenge, and I can finish lots of BDs in under an hour with maybe 1 unknown word per page. And I just finished a 70,000-word young adult novel (L'Étrange vie de Nobody Owens) in just over a day! My listening comprehension of Buffy has gone from 40% (most of which was still pretty blurry) to 80% (most of which is quite solid) with the occasional 5-minute section where I get nearly everything. Without the encouragement of the Super Challenge, I wouldn't have made so much progress so fast. So a great many thanks to Solfrid—you've really helped out in some amazing ways by organizing this challenge! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 11 of 199 25 January 2013 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just started reading parallel texts in Spanish this week, and I thought my Spanish was pretty good ... but I only make it through a few pages a night. This is where I was a year ago with French, and I'm amazed at how far I've come in a year of intensive reading. And we're not only half way! So, more kudos to Solfrid! Flics - I'm having a harder time finding movies that I like. I never thought I'd say this, but I think Americans make better movies than the French these days. And I had a strange weekend; the French documentary I went to see was in English, and the Australian documentary was in French! 41. À bout portant (Point Blank; Fred Cavayé, 2010). A nurse saves the wrong guy and now the mafia kidnaps his wife. He has one night to save her. There is ninety minutes of men punching and shooting each other. There are lots of corrupt cops. See no. 46. ** 42. Le silence de Lorna (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, 2008). Lorna is an Albanian immigrant and con-artist who starts to, slowly and reluctantly, develop empathy for her victim. Well done, haunting, and moving; this is the second movie by the Dardenne brothers that I've seen. There is an emotional honesty with their movies that seems missing in the others I've seen. Also, there are no scenese of men punching each other. 43. De rouille et d'os (Jacques Audliard, 2012) - I've hated every movie I've seen by this director. The lead is an emotionally stunted hunk of muscle who neglects his child, kicks dogs, and abuses his sister ... but women can't resist him, and we know he's sensitive inside by the way the camera lingers on his biceps and back, and by the long shots of him staring at the setting sun while the sad music plays. It has great actors and actresses and cinemtography, which masks the fact that it's total crap. There are also lots of scenes of men punching each other. ** 44. Pépé le Moko (Julien Duivier, 1937). The link is to the whole movie, with subtitles. A French gangster is trapped in the casbah in Algiers, and dreams of escaping and returning to Paris. There are no scenes of men punching each other, and lots of scenes of men trying to outsmart each other. *** 45. Lunch with Madame Murat (Mary Moody, 2007). An Australian documentary celebrating the 100th anniversary of a country inn in a tiny little village in France, and the five generations of women who've run it. The documentary doesn't feel very polished, but it captures something absolutely magical. 46. Nuit Blanch (Frédéric Jardin, 2011). Gangsters kidnap a man's son and he has one night to rescue him. It's ninety minutes of men punching and shooting each other. There are lots of corrupt cops. I think this is the plot of every single French action movie of the last ten years. See No. 41. X. La graine et le moulet (The Secret of the Grain; Abdel Kechiche, 2007). Slimane wants to open a couscous shop with his nagging ex wife, nasty daughter, slutty son, and sexy mistress. The reviewers say that the last thirty minutes make up for the irritating first two hours. I didn't make it that far. Books (46.8 read) Les misérables, tome 3: Marius. Victor Hugo, 1862 (247 pages) Here's the arc of each tome of Les misérables: 1. Long windy exposition that seems like it will never end. It took me over a week to read the first fifty pages. 2. We meet a bunch of secondary characters, and learn their back story. Things get interesting. 3. Things slow down. More tangents. Where is this all going? 4. Now we move to the present time period. This is better. 5. Ooh, action! drama! I read the last seventy pages in a single night. Interestingly, none of this section of Les Mis was in the musical! It gave an interesting insight into the characters. Here's a great line, where Javert confronts Madame Thenardier in their hovel: "What a soldier, this mother!" said Javert. "You have a beard like a man ... but I have claws like a woman!" I'd love to see Russell Crowe deliver that line. Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu 30% finished. This is my easy reading. bd: Siegried. Alex Alice, 2007. Fantastic. This is the first French bd that I've really loved. I've liked others - Tintin in particular is good fun - but this one has the loose, dreamy quality that makes a great graphic novel. The others have been ok stories with great art, but a bit too linear. Siegfried really feels epic. Too bad the next two tomes are only available in France, and are so dang expensive! I'll have to wait until next month's paycheck to continue. 
(edited to add weekend movies and reading)) Edited by kanewai on 28 January 2013 at 8:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5337 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 199 31 January 2013 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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@ emk and @ kanewai: Thank you both for kudos and for fantastic posts. Kerrie said in one of the main
threads that tomorrow, on February 1st we are half way through, and after counting on my fingers for ten minutes to figure out whether it was actually February 1st or March 1st, I decided to take the easy way out and just take her word for it :-) I would therefore ask everyone to make sure they update their scores before midnight local time ( I have some serious work to do there as I have not updated for some time) and to write about where you are, how much you have achieved and how you intend to reach your goals. You do not have to do that written update today, you could do it sometime next week if you like, but try to register everything on the bot today. Go Super Challengers!! Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 31 January 2013 at 12:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5398 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 199 31 January 2013 at 3:16pm | IP Logged | ||
Actually, it's March 1st. It's nice to know someone listens to me, though. :D 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hjordis Senior Member United States snapshotsoftheworld. Joined 5189 days ago 209 posts - 264 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 14 of 199 01 February 2013 at 6:59am | IP Logged | ||
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March 1st or not, after months of silence it's about time I update the thread! I got all my updates registered on twitter the other day, and I see a nifty list feature was added at some point so I'll just take the lists from there as I lost my old lists.
Japanese Books: hunterxhunter treasures vol.1 157 pages hunterxhunter treasures vol.2 104 pages hunterxhunter treasures vol.3 96 pages hunterxhunter treasures vol.4 109 pages hunterxhunter treasures vol.5 95 pages Still working on this series, though I'm quite close to finishing the last one. I've read pathetically little in Japanese. I've also read a little of winnie the pooh, which will be added when I finish. Japanese movies: 13 Jun 2012 : となりのトトロ 魔法の宅急便 崖の上のポニョ 天空の城ラピュタ 紅の豚 13人の刺客 猫の恩返し 耳をすませば 平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ ゲド戦記 銀色の髪のアギト 時をかける少女 歩いても、歩いても No notes here really, except that 猫の恩返し and 時をかける少女 were amazing. Most of the others were good, 13人の刺客 was very difficult for me, not only language wise but also content wise. Just not my thing. French Books: easy french reader harry potter à l'école des sorciers 305 pages harry potter et la chambre des secrets 349 pages l'integrale des contes en vers et en prose harry potter et le prisonnier d'azkaban 454 pages French reading is doing much better, mostly because I've been focusing on Harry Potter and it's much easier to motivate myself when I don't have to deal with kanji. I'm working on the 4th book now. French Movies: le roi lion mon voisin totoro les chroniques de narnia : l'armoire magique ponyo sur la falaise le chat potté les chroniques de narnia : le prince caspian alice au pays des merveilles kung fu panda les 101 dalmatiens l'Étrange noël de monsieur jack jumanji les chroniques de spiderwick pirates des caraïbes : la malédiction de la perle noire coraline l’histoire sans fin pirates des caraïbes : le coffre du mort pirates des caraïbes : la fontaine de jouvence nanny mcphee l'Ère de glace amélie la belle et la bête le pacte des loups ricky Oddly enough, my French movies are also much better than my Japanese despite the fact that I'm more comfortable in Japanese. A few notes: L'étrange Noël de Monsieur Jack has got to be my favorite movie title translation ever. Amélie was great. La belle et la Bête(the opera from 1946) was quite strange, but enjoyable. Le pacte des loups was good. Ricky was quite bizarre, and I'm still not sure whether I liked it. Overall, I have a great feeling about finishing my movies for both languages. I've set aside a time that I will watch one movie a day(except tuesdays. Right now I have a class then.) and I have them all picked out and ready to be watched. I despair about books, but I will keep moving forward and certainly make progress. I hope to at the very least finish with French and read enough in Japanese to feel almost as comfortable with it as I am listening to Japanese. I've been using subtitles as a crutch in French and I'm going to try to stop that; I have a few more children's films that had gotten shuffled down in my netflix queue that I've moved to the top for starters. I haven't done much at all with conversations and writing. I want to get my listening and reading schedules sorted out before I try to fit those into my week. My friend said she'd help with my French, so I just have to work out something with here, and I have an idea for what I want to write about in Japanese that I've been working on a bit. Writing in French and conversations in Japanese still need to be arranged. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 15 of 199 01 February 2013 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
OK, let me take a shot. :-) We're 45% of the way through the challenge, which means that if I did an equal amount of work each month, I would have read 45 books and watched 45 films. (Of course, most people will get much faster as they go along, so this isn't actually a reasonable assumption.) My current progress is: Films: 68.3 Books: 38.3 Overall: 53% The films part has been easy and fun, and a single $100 box set of Buffy contre les vampires will be enough cover 80% of the challenge by itself. Toss in 15 hours of the Quebec version of Planète terre and a few other miscellaneous DVDs, and it's pretty well covered. This is all good fun, and I could wrap it up in month without sweat at this point. If we were talking about physical fitness instead of language learning, this would be the equivalent of some nice summer walks or joining a pick-up basketball team with your coworkers. And it's done amazing things for my listening. Books… Well, let's talk about books. It's that books that put the "Super" in "Super Challenge." If we assume 250 to 500 words per page, which is what typical adult books seem to have, that gives us 10,000 pages containing between 2.5 million and 5 million words. To put this in perspective, a native 12-year-old who's doing badly in school reads maybe 8,000 words year. A 12-year-old who adores books reads between 1 and 4 million words per year. Or to make it visual, the first Harry Potter book has 67,000 words, and Order of the Phoenix has 257,000 words and 870 pages. I'm surprised and pleased to discover that this is actually possible, though it's far from easy. To extend the athletic metaphor, this is training for a marathon. It requires greater sacrifice and effort, but it also has a much bigger payoff. Like I mentioned upthread, my reading speed has gone up dramatically, and I can actually keep up with my 9-year-old self and the way I once read English. This is a huge and enormous gift, and I couldn't be happier about it. But overall, I have a somewhat conflicted relationship with the reading portion of the Super Challenge. I love what it's doing for my French, and I wish that—like my 9-year-old self—I could spend every waking hour with my nose in a book. But I admit that the sheer size of the task is sometimes daunting. But if I can somehow get in 5 hours of quality reading every week for the next 11 months, I can finish this. It's large but doable. And I'm actually learning more from every page than I was in the beginning. Still, I have huge respect for anybody who manages to finish the reading challenge in even one language. That's some serious badassery, to be honest. And in any case, the challenge is an amazing idea, and I recommend it wholeheartedly for intermediate learners who want to make huge gains. Just maybe people should be more sensible than me, and try to find books with less than 250 words per page, OK? ;-) Or at least have slightly more free time. Edited by emk on 01 February 2013 at 4:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4691 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 16 of 199 01 February 2013 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Nice! I love how you wordified that concept there. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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