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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 4683 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 537 of 656 27 August 2012 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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20% Update: 19 movies, 17.9 books
We're approaching the end of month four, or 20% of the challenge. I'll be on the road for the next two weeks, so I'll have a lot of time for reading (hopefully) but not much time for twittering or posting. I figured this would be a good time for a quick summary. Overall: I still find this to be a fantastically motivating challenge. I naively thought I would know enough French to be able to casually read a novel by the end of 2011. I didn't realize how much work it would take - I always thought reading was easier than speaking. Having this goal of 100 books really pushes me to invest the time and energy into reading. I would be reading these books anyway, just not at this pace! Frustrations: I still wish more people would post their progress here. I enjoy reading about other's discoveries, even if it's not in my TL language. I'm also hoping more French students make the jump to literature ... I see people tackling native-language materials in Spanish and Japanese, but not French! Current Books and Movies: À bout de souffle (Breathless; Jean-Luc Godard, 1960; 90 minutes). Very stylish, cool and sexy. Highly recommended. The language was easy to understand. One of the characters was an American student, and anytime another character used slang she would ask what it meant. How great is that for us! Les Misérables, tome 1: Fantine (Victor Hugo, 1862; 276 p). The first couple pages were deceptively easy to read, and I got suckered in. Well, things got challenging fast. The writing is beautiful and Hugo's humanity shines through, but the pace is slow! Hugo took fifty pages just to discuss the character and motivation of the Bishop Bienvenu. I find that I can read a narrative quite well at this point, but slow down to a crawl when I reach the long descriptive and introspective passages. (currently on page 60) Bel ami (Guy de Maupassant, 1885; 300 pages). A fun novel about a handsome soldier who climbs his way to the top of Paris society. Or at least, it's fun so far. I'm sure it will turn tragic at the end. French novels always do. I didn't mean to start two serious books at once; I just meant to read a few pages to get a taste of de Maupassant. But it's an easy novel - I'd put it at the same level as Harry Potter - and it was such a pleasure to read at a relaxed pace that I kept going. (currently on page 30) Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets (J.K. Rowling, 1998; 365 p). I'll start this as soon as I finish one of the above. Edited by kanewai on 28 August 2012 at 2:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4482 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 538 of 656 28 August 2012 at 12:04am | IP Logged | |||||
You think that few people are reading literature here? Interesting. Maybe they just aren't posting about it? The language challenge bot lists something like 17 people who've read at least one book in French. I'm ramping up slowly, but I'm getting there. I'll probably start reading HP2 along with you pretty soon, and sooner or later I hope to join you in reading in the more "literary" ouevre. For me, I think the hardest thing is that reading in German is so much easier than anything else, and Dutch (my second challenge language along with French) still so much easier than French, that I keep being tempted to spend more time reading in those languages, where I can more easily get lost in a story instead of struggling with grammar and vocabulary. Not that that's so terrible, but I really am trying to learn French... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5189 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 539 of 656 28 August 2012 at 1:00am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree, it would be nice to see more people's discoveries, with both books and movies. My French isn't solid enough to start reading in yet. I'm concerned about going backwards with my pronunciation if I start reading too soon. I am going to finish Assimil and then work through a Practice Makes Perfect grammar before I start reading French. Part of the problem with reading for the Challenge right now in most of my languages is that I'm not at sufficient levels. I think reading would be beneficial, but I think that the other things I'm doing (mostly Assimil) are more productive at the moment. Between work, children (one more week til school starts for them!), and trying to juggle 3-4 languages, I try to maximize the effect of what time I have. :) I've been on a movie kick lately, but that has more to do with my laziness and burnout (and life) than anything else right now. Instead of sitting down to stare at TV at night, I'll sit down and watch a movie in one of my TLs. I've been watching mostly Spanish and Italian films, and I've been really impressed on how much it has helped my comprehension. I started by watching "familiar" stuff - kids movies and Stargate episodes mostly, but decided a while ago to try real (original) movies. I am really surprised by how much cinematic art there is for both languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4497 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 540 of 656 28 August 2012 at 1:09am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for the clarification. If you decide to make a change, I'll be more than happy to go with whatever the new rules are. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4683 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 541 of 656 28 August 2012 at 2:11am | IP Logged | |||||
Definitely "not posting" more than "not reading," though it does seem that more people are moving onto native materials in other languages faster than they are with French.
This has been a major challenge for me. I rely heavily on parallel and bilingual texts for the classics, though I can make it through HP and lighter books with just a dictionary. My progress is definitley a lot slower than if I had spent all this time with an actual coursebook. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4327 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 542 of 656 28 August 2012 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think the confusion for me was simply that the standard length of a movie is about 75-90 minutes. I am pretty sure a 45 minute film would be called a short-film, not a feature film. Anyway, the bigger reason for me to count 90 minutes plus a film, is simply because the challenge would be too unbalanced otherwise. As it is I think probably <20% of the challenge is the movie side, while the reading side is closer to 80%-90%. If I counted 45 minutes as a 'film' then it would be too imbalanced for me. But I guess the important word is 'challenge'. So whatever you do you should make it a challenge for yourself. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4327 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 543 of 656 28 August 2012 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree entirely. The movie challenge has been great to force me out to watch tv/films. Before the challenge I had never watched an German film without subtitles, now I have no fear watching original movies in the cinema. My reading hasn't progressed anywhere near as far. I find that part of the challenge much harder, but I will start working on this once I am further into the movie challenge. I love reading about people's progress here too. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4265 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 544 of 656 29 August 2012 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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OK, so I'm new here and I'd like to register to the challenge.
Language: Spanish Challenge : half Current level : A1 I'm not sure I can do it but I hope this will keep me motivated. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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