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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 |  | |
| Tamise Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom jllrr.wordpress.com/ Joined 5041 days ago 115 posts - 161 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese, Spanish | Message 33 of 199 03 March 2013 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Half-way Update
Dutch Films: 105/200 Books: 79.9/200 Films are going really well in Dutch, and I'm at the stage that I don't really have to think about it being in Dutch rather than English. I've started watching a documentary series of European history, and I'm understanding almost all of it (and getting fun snatches of other languages with Dutch subs when they go an talk to people). I'm behind a bit with the books, but I started with the challenge in July for Dutch, so am fairly on target. I'm trying to vary my reading as much as possible and only struggle a little with more complicated books/passages. Overall, my Dutch really has improved a lot during the challenge - I think mainly because of the shear volume of stuff I've been getting through. The only problem I have is getting materials - video is fine, but Dutch books are so expensive new that I try to get second hand, and it's quite difficult to find second hand books in Dutch in the UK. There's a large book sale in May that I'll go to and if last year is anything to go by, there will be a fair bit of material in Dutch. If I'm lucky I'll get to Flanders later in the year and will go on a book hunt then. Japanese Films: 54/100 Books: 35.4/100 Films are okay, but I still don't get as much as I would like to and my comprehension really varies from show to show, and occasionally day to day on the same show. I'm certainly enjoying it, but think I probably need to do some more focussed learning too. Books are a bit more of a struggle, but I'm finally beginning to get over the mental block of reading actual books in Japanese (rather than manga). My understanding has certainly improved drastically - I'm also now at the point where I find it much easier to locate interesting new materials, so don't have a shortage of things I want to read. I tend to get Japanese books online from Japan. This actually isn't too expensive, and I managed to get a lot of really cheap manga on a recent trip to London. French Films: 24/50 Books: 21.1/50 I'm not really inspired by any of the films I have in French that I've not watched yet, so will need to think about getting something new. My comprehension is reasonable, as is my reading comprehension, but I wonder if it's better to have the more intense study of the full challenge in order to see much improvement. It's probably just that improvement is much slower with the half challenge. Spanish Films: 18.5/50 Books: 0.7/50 Spanish films are going well, and I'm beginning to get the gist of things. Reading is much slower though - in addition to the amount logged, I've got about another 100 pages read. As I only picked this up in January, and only started to read in February, I think the intensity is better than with French. Also, as I'm pretty much a beginner, my progress is much faster, which helps keep up the momentum. Overall, I'm very please with how the challenges are going and with how my languages have improved. I think progress is probably quickest in languages closer to one you already know, but that the method does work for more distant languages - I'm not sure if it would work for a more distance language without a bit of a base though. (I am tempted to try with Mandarin next year and test this theory.) Well done to everyone who's still going with the challenge(s) - it's been both fun and interesting to see how other people are getting on. Let's hope that the next 10 months are even more productive! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6395 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 34 of 199 03 March 2013 at 4:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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as for french movies, how about the old ones with Pierre Richard? they're hilarious! <3
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5591 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 35 of 199 03 March 2013 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Update: German 16%
Read 8/100 books "Grammar" "German for 30 days" "Methode90:Units 12-20" "Ines meines Herzens" "Die schonheit des augenblicks"(exibition book) "Heute heiratet mein man" "Glasperlenspiel" Poetry:Goethe Watched 38.7/100 films TV: News "Galileo" "Literature im foyer" " Joko gegen Klaas" "Spiegelshow" +other tv watching Films: "Che" "Empire" "Ryans Tochter" "Karate kid" "Willkomen bei den Sch'tis" "Die Bruder Karamasow " "Vorleser" "Salt" "Die legend von beowulf" "Timing of the shrew" "When worlds collide" Serials "Csi" "Bigbentheory" "Dokumentationsreihe: der Inn" "Grey's anatomy" Audiobook: "Glasperlenspiel" Opera spectacle: "Loengrin" Others: Methode90 2.6/100 pieces of writing "German for 30 days": copying, exercises posts 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4687 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 36 of 199 06 March 2013 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Half Time Thoughts
It's great to see how many people are still going strong on the challenge! It's been a fascinating journey so far, and it's hard to believe that we've covered so much ground and it's only the half-way mark. My reading comprehension has grown by leaps and bounds. I still struggle with listening comprehension, though. I'm going to be an expert in French cinema by the end of this year, though. I never realized just how many "100" was! I also finally invested in a Roku streaming video player, which should make the 'movies' part of the challenge easier. So easy that I got overly excited and signed up for an additional half-challenge in Spanish. French flics 49. Les Patriots (Eric Rochant, 1994) - A teen from Paris joins Mossad, but becomes disillusioned. 50. Masculin féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966) - The story of les enfants de Marx et de Coca-Cola. 51. Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962) - Cléo is a frivilous pop-singer who's convinced she's dying, and wanders around Paris looking for ... something. I feel like I'm re-discovering the French New Wave. So far I'm loving it. books (53.7 finished) I want to read a couple more shorter novels before jumping back into Les Mis. *** La symphonie pastorale, André Gide, 1919 (65 p) - A pastor brings a blind orphan home and raises her with his family. A beautiful, tragic, note-perfect story about all the different kinds of 'blindness' - physical, emotional, and spiritual. This is the story from Gide that friends from Paris all recommended. Pierre et Jean. Guy de Maupassant, 1887 (120 p) - Two brothers are torn apart by jealousy. The story moves slowly; it's much more about the brothers' interior journey and psychological state. It reminds me of Flaubert in that regard, though it's much slower. Spanish There's no way I can do the Spanish Challenge on the same level as I've done the French. Forget high culture - I'll be watching telenovelas. Luckily most are so silly and over the top that they're fun to watch even without subtitles. Movies 1. Cuba Libre (Rai Garcia, 2005. Spain) - A comedy about anarchists who take over the Cuban embassy. Fidel is not impressed. 2. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006. Spain). I love Almodóvar. Cuentas Aura. Carlos Fuentes, 1961. (Mexico, 65 p). A writer gets an assignement from a mysterious patron. I've been reading this slowly, over the course of a couple weeks. My reading speed is still very, very slow in Spanish. I have a book of short stories in parallel text coming in the mail, and after that I'll continue with Harry Potter. It helped so much with my French, and I'm hoping I can recreate the magic with Spanish. Harry Potter y la Orden del Fenix is waiting for me! Potential Telenovelas Abismo de Pasión. I love the title. La Fea Más Bella. The Mexican version of Ugly Betty. La Reina del Sur. A narco's girlfriend takes over the cartel after he's assasinated. I've already read the book. I think this was the biggest telenovela ever. Escobar, El patrón del Mal. Looks like a lot of cocaine-fueled action. Does anyone know if we can log movies 'by the minute' on the twitter bot, in the same way we log books by the page? Edited by kanewai on 06 March 2013 at 11:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5193 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 37 of 199 06 March 2013 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, 90 minutes counts as one film. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4687 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 38 of 199 06 March 2013 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4486 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 39 of 199 06 March 2013 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes. Take a look at my detailed stats, for example. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4687 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 40 of 199 03 April 2013 at 12:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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March Update
Having streaming video has made it so much easier to watch foreign movies; I've jumped ahead this month. I've already reviewed a lot of these on my log, so I'll just add quick notes here. French flics - I would recommend any of these (and that's a first!) 52. Les diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1954). Two school teachers plot the murder of a cruel headmaster. 53. Le Grand Voyage (Ismaël Ferroukhi, 2004). A young guy must drive his hard-headed old man from France to Mecca. A decent road-trip movie, and the final scenes during the hadj in Mecca are outstanding. 54. Viva Laldjérie (Nadir Moknèche, 2004). A former dancer and her liberated daughter face off against rising intolerance in Algeria. television 55-58. Engrenage - "A cop thriller series with new codes." Whatever that means. It was good, if a bit violent. I'm looking forward to Season 2. 59. Kaamelott - The true story of King Arthur and his knights. It's brilliant. books (56.6 finished) Les misérables: tome 4 - L'idylle rue Plumet et l'épopée rue Saint-Denis - I'm about 40% through. Marius and Cosette have finally met, the members of the brutal Patron-Minette gang have escaped from prison, and Gavroche has taken two street urchins into his care, not realizing that they are his younger brothers. Spanish flics 3. El espíritu de la colmena (Victor Erice, 1973. Spain). Supposed to be the best Spanish movie of it's time. I thought there was too much metaphor, and not enough story. 4. Bruc. La llegenda. (Daniel Benmayor, 2010. Spain). Catalan guerillas take on assassins sent by Napoleon. It's all action. In Catalan, Spanish, and French. 5. Cronos (Guillermo del Toro, 1992. México). Where del Toro got his start. I really wish he had done The Hobbit instead of that other guy. 6. Temporado de patos (Duck Season) (Fernando Eimbcke, 2004. México). Two pre-teens are left alone on a Sunday afternoon. It starts slow, and develops into a really sweet and lovely movie. telenovelas 7-9. La Fea más Bella (six episodes). The subtitles are in Spanish, so I have to work harder to follow the plot. I enjoy it, but I doubt that I'll watch all 300 (!) episodes. 10-11. La Reina del Sur (four episodes). An addictive thriller. It's been a pain to watch, though. The episodes are on YouTube, but without subtitles. Half the episodes are also on Mun2, with subtitles. books (2.6 finished) I've been working my way through Short Stories in Spanish: New Penguin Parallel Texts. The stories have all been good so far, and María dos Prazeres by Gabriel García Márquez was fantastic. I'm looking forward to being able to read my first novel by Márquez. Edited by kanewai on 03 April 2013 at 8:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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