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Rdearman Super Challenge Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 113 of 158 19 February 2015 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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--- Weekly Update ---
Steady increase in the average books per week for the last couple of weeks. I have finally completed "Le Flèau" (or The Stand) by Stephen King (I can hear the sighs of relief from here!), and turns out God wins. I was hoping to complete the Italian book as well, but sadly that wasn't to be this week. I have a couple of more Stephen King books in French, but I think I might go back and try to re-read the first book I did for the Super Challenge which was an HP Lovecraft horror book. I'm curious to see if I've actually made any progress. Although I can read a bit faster, and it seems that I've made progress it is difficult to gage how much if any progress I've actually made. I've read between 600,000 & 650,000 words in French now given the statistics below. You'd have thought there would be a noticeable improvement. I was happy to hear there will be another season of Engrenage next year, because that will get clocked against next years challenge! And I can find out why Judge Roban is having nosebleeds. I was thinking it would be a really cool challenge (possibly next year) to run parallel to have an Output super challenge was well as an "input" challenge. So I started a thread about that here if anyone wants to discuss. This is because, for me, output is really lacking in my target languages, and I think it would be helpful if I had something to challenge myself and had to account for. I haven't watched any Italian TV for a long time now, and I need to watch something, but everything I have doesn't interest me much. I've either seen it 2 or 3 times, or it is just too cheesy to watch. RAI should hire the French showrunners for some of their police dramas! Get rid of the cheese! Seriously I can write better TV shows than that. (hummmm.... maybe I should apply to RAI for a job. :)) --- SC Statistics --- French : 46.5 books : 111.7 films Italian : 41.1 books : 77.6 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.061 books per week --> 1.107 books per week Italian: 0.978 books per week --> 0.997 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 96.32 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 86.79 --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 114 of 158 05 March 2015 at 10:08am | IP Logged | |||||
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--- Weekly Update ---
I've decided to just include my output challenge stats and updates here in my Super Challenge log because it makes my life easier. Output challenge is below. I've not done as well on the Super Challenge as I wanted this week and my stats are lagging behind. Having said that, I've done some analysis and basically I've kept a fairly level playing field all the time. Perhaps it is just going to become one of those sprints to the end. I've been re-reading "La Petit Nicolas" in French and I've completed one of the "Ladies Detective Agency" books in Italian. I've started the last one I have, so in a week or so I'll have to cast about for another Italian book to read. After some more weeks work, I've done another chart for French & Italian statistics. 
My french films have dropped off, but I've already completed that part of the challenge, so that isn't a problem. The reading is constant, but I will need to plow through an extra 7 books, and keep up the same pace in order to win the challenge. 
Italian is more or less the same story as French, I'm confident I'll complete the challenge in films, but reading I'll need to do an extra 14 books, and keep the same pace. You'll notice however the slope of the reading average has been increasing ever so slightly, so a steady increase over the next 10 months might get me there as well. --- SC Statistics --- French : 47.2 books : 112.3 films Italian : 43.2 books : 78.9 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.107 books per week --> 1.048 books per week Italian: 0.997 books per week --> 0.960 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 94.36 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 86.40 --- Output Challenge Update --- The target for the Output Challenge is to write 50,000 words in Italian, and to record 100 hours of speaking in Italian. So far so good! I did a recording of myself speaking in Italian while driving to Cambridge for an interview. I recorded it with my Samsung Android using an app called Smart Voice Recorder which is free to use if you want to record yourself for the challenge. This is for voice dictation really, so no video. I managed to get rid of most of the road noise using Audacity and learned a lesson about using a better microphone, and a less noisy environment! I think it was a useful first exercise for me. I learned a lot and you can listen to it here. Although you'd have to be a glutton for punishment. I listened to this twice myself, mostly to identify all the words and phrases I didn't know and look them up. I did wonder if it would count toward an Italian film. :) The recording allowed me to identify words I didn't know, and I've now captured those, looked them up and put them into an anki deck. So the usefulness of this exercise is evident to me. It has also shown me I use the phrase "molto interessanta" and "so" far, far, far to much and need to knock that on the head. For the written part of the challenge I've decided to write a childrens story. My grammar and vocabulary are surpassed by most children, but it was more fun than writing a diary entry about my boring day. I've pasted in the first 265 words and a rough translation below. I had some corrections on Lang-8 for the story already and got some really good insights and corrections. I'm actually kicking myself for not doing this sort of thing sooner. I'm planning on passing the story over to my tutor for corrections and walk through it with her. Like the Super Challenge I plan to track my statistics, and hopefully do some charts later. --- Output Challenge Statistics --- Italian : 265 words : 49 minutes
Which translates roughly to.
As always corrections are welcome and feel free to leave comments and feedback. --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. Edited by rdearman on 05 March 2015 at 10:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 115 of 158 12 March 2015 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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--- Weekly Update ---
I had forgotten just how useful it is to commute to work. People don't really appreciate being locked in a train or car for 1 or 2 hours. It has been a real struggle for me to dedicate time to language learning when I'm not going back and forth to work. Time which was carved out of the day by force. 10 or 15 hours per week which you can dedicate solely to language learning or other self-improvement projects is actually a godsend. There are so many demands on your time when people (whom you know or are related to) believe you aren't busy and therefore they can interrupt you. On a train, everyone sits in their seat not talking to each other, and therefore giving you peace and time to progress your studies. Or in a car alone when you can simply listen to Pimsleur or FSI repeatedly and speak out loud and practice with nobody to judge you. And not only do people not appreciate this god-given time sink, they squander it reading stupid crap on their phones, or talking to people at the office (who they will see, or have already seen all day anyway) and bothering others. I used to see people reading newspapers or magazines which would in no way give them any benefit (because it was in their native language) other than to know who married who, or what stupid policy the government opposition (or in-power government) is proposing. Or watching films, or listening to music. If you are over the age of 35 and you live in a 1st world country, on average, you've got LESS THAN 14,600 days to live. If you are over the age of 50 then you have less than 9,000 days left on this planet. I'm not saying everyone should stop commuting, but if you're sleeping or reading a newspaper you should remember the time is ticking away... The reason for the rant is I'm still slipping behind on the Super Challenge, in fact if I'd have been doing this last year, I would have had to quit by now. I'd have never done 100 books of 100 pages. Although knowing what I know now, I'd not have signed up for more than one language. There be dragons. What I really need is to download a book on time management in French! (or Italian). --- SC Statistics --- French : 48.6 books : 112.3 films Italian : 43.7 books : 79.8 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.048 books per week --> 1.056 books per week Italian: 0.960 books per week --> 0.950 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 92.95 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 83.60 --- Output Challenge Update --- I did a couple of hundred words more on my childrens story, but I haven't actually recorded anything this week in Italian. The plan was to record to my phone as I walked by dog, but that didn't actually happen. I did walk the dog, but I didn't take the phone. I have discovered that my output is very poor. Ideally (if I had thought of it at the time) I would have been doing the Output Challenge & the Super Challenge together previously, because Output has lagged considerably. I think it was a good desision to restrict the Output Challenge to one language, certainly for me it would be impossible to do in both French & Italian, although French would have been easier I think for me. It is Italian that needs the care and watering at the moment. Choosing a story seems to be a good way to get corrections on Lang-8, a lot of people seem to like to read a story rather than a diary, and if you got a story which includes a Frenchman with three noses.... well that has to be good right? I didn't bother to make the corrections to my text below yet, so you can see all the mistakes in all their glory! --- Output Challenge Statistics --- Italian : 558 words : 49 minutes
Which translates roughly to.
As always corrections are welcome and feel free to leave comments and feedback. --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4584 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 116 of 158 12 March 2015 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've just been smiling about your commuting rant as I have been thinking quite a bit over the past week about how much more spare time I would have if I didn't commute :) I definitely don't appreciate that time and probably fall into the class of person who listen to music and read stupid crap on their phones. Perhaps I need to come up with a plan of how to use the time more effectively! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 117 of 158 12 March 2015 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Learning to study while commuting has been one of the most liberating things for me with
language learning. I also have a hard time finding an hour a day to sit down and actually study. Some months I can, others I'm just too busy or lazy. But I have a half-hour bike commute to work each way, which is perfect for a Pimsleur or FSI lesson, or a short podcast. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 118 of 158 12 March 2015 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I spend something between 1-4 hours per day in public transport and it is no place
to study usually. I can read or listen, not both, or I miss the right station. I often cannot read because I don't always go by the underground and some of the trams and buses make my stomach rebel. Sometimes, as a czech author Šimek wrote, you just stand on one foot which is not even your own, and that's no way to study either. So, I am out of luck, I can read a foreign book most times, and I do, but serious study requiring more attention is an unachievable dream. So, I am in the get-rid-of-any-kind-of-commuting camp. Those day counts are pretty scary, true. Will you share your childrens story, please? :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 119 of 158 12 March 2015 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
Very scary counts! Well, I'm writing it 250 words at a time. :) I don't know where the story is going though... I just think it up each week. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 120 of 158 19 March 2015 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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--- Weekly Update ---
"The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley," - Robert Burns. Well my best laid schemes seemed to have 'Gang aft agley' this week and I only managed to read 30+ pages of a French book and only 1 page of a book in Italian. This is mostly because of a man-flu affliction early in the week and a couple of job interviews which kept me busy and out of the house. I have decided I'm going to try some Timeboxing in order to get some thing completed. This is basically the Pomodoro technique, which I've used in the past when I was writing for NanoWriMo, or programming, for example. I have the desktop application, so I can use it for the Output Challenge, but I'm hoping it will help with reading. I'm just trying to organise some fixed time in my day for watching Italian Films or reading books. It seems if left to my own devices I will wander around aimlessly and accomplish nothing. :) After I complete this message I'm off to Tesco to purchase a real timer, to put down on the desk and get something done! --- SC Statistics --- French : 49.2 books : 112.3 films Italian : 43.7 books : 79.8 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.056 books per week --> 1.046 books per week Italian: 0.950 books per week --> 0.929 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 92.08 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 81.78 --- Output Challenge Update --- I did a little more on my childrens story this morning. I seem to be leaving everything to the last minute like a child with their homework. I haven't recorded anything, well, I did record a few minutes while walking with my dog but after listening back to it, it seemed most of the conversation consisted of me shouting, "Freddie, bring me the frisbee!" So recording and walking the dog is a bust I think. I'm going to have to get more organised. --- Output Challenge Statistics --- Italian : 757 words : 49 minutes Output for this week below. I'm hoping to collate it all together (with lang-8 corrections) and post it on the OC thread.
Which translates roughly to.
As always corrections are welcome and feel free to leave comments and feedback. --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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