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Rdearman Super Challenge Log

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rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4995 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 73 of 158
16 October 2014 at 2:52pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
rdearman wrote:
I really want to find a TV series to watch, but I'm sick of detectives and police dramas, anyone know a good situational comedy in French? I have a couple of other French series to watch but they are all drama depressing stuff.

I also find I end up watching a lot of cop shows in French, even though I never watch them in English. A lot of people like Un village français, which is a drama about a village under German occupation during WW2. I've watched 2 series, and I like it a lot.

I have no idea about sitcoms, but I'd also love to hear about some. I've seen Kaamelot mentioned a lot, and apparently it's a comedy/drama. This website mentions Caméra Café which looks like it would be fun, and since it's based around natural conversations it should be good for learning.


I watched part of episode one of Un village français but turned it off when the kids are shot by German aeroplanes. I need some comedy in my life! :)

Watched Les Aventures de Tintin, the cartoon for a little bit, but didn't really appeal. For the last week I've watched the first 10 minutes of a couple of shows but nothing has really "clicked". I have a list of TV shows in French which some friends gave me and I posted awhile back, so I'm going to go back and look through some of them for something interesting. I find lots of films, but not a lot of TV? I like the look of Caméra Café so I'll check that out.

In mandarin I've been following a food series from Singapore and it is very interesting. So perhaps something like a soap opera, or a food show, but I'm sick of policemen in both French & Italian! I started watching a reality TV show called "Peking Express" at the start of the Super Challenge so I might go back and watch some of those.

Thanks for the tip on Caméra Café.
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Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4668 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 74 of 158
16 October 2014 at 6:21pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for posting back to that list. Have you managed to find a good source for any of those series? I've bought the first DVD of Caméra Café (it was just a couple pounds). I'll post something about it on my log next week.
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rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4995 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 75 of 158
16 October 2014 at 9:23pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
Thanks for posting back to that list. Have you managed to find a good source for any of those series? I've bought the first DVD of Caméra Café (it was just a couple pounds). I'll post something about it on my log next week.


[HINT]
Arrggggg matey! No problem postin' th' list matey, as far as find them.... Oh yarr, bin found a number 'o sources to find some 'o these. But can't spy wit' ye eye many on Amazon. But wit' a trusty parrot on ye shoulder 'n a spyglass in ye eye ye can find somethin' th' landlubbers might overlook.
[/HINT]


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rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4995 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 76 of 158
23 October 2014 at 12:04pm | IP Logged 
--- Weekly Update ---
My little mini-challenge for this week was a bust. I had a lot going on this week which kept me from reading. I still managed to do 2 books in French and 1 in Italian but this isn't really good enough. I would really like to surge ahead at least a little so I could take a breather without panic. Still I've drawn almost even in French and pulled Italian up from the back-stretch.


--- SC Statistics ---
French : 29.5 books : 65.9 films
Italian : 26.2 books : 68.4 films

Reading Averages Change
French: 1.100 books per week --> 1.134 books per week
Italian: 1.020 books per week --> 1.007 books per week

At my current rate I will fail in French by 0.15 books and fail in Italian by 11.32 books.

French

FILMS
I have gotten ahold of a audio book called "L'Empire Des Loup" which I've been listening to. I've also seen what looks like a good series called "Hero Corp" and I've managed to get the first episode so I'm going to have a look at that. It is a comedy about superheroes, which has to be good right?

BOOKS
Still reading Le Fléau, but I'm now on the third and final physical book! So hopefully some more variation in my logs soon.

Books I am reading are:
"Le Fléau" - Stephen King

Italian
Did some reading but hard to find the time this week. I would like to get ahead so that when I don't have so much time it doesn't knock-on to the next week.

FILMS
Listened to the "Lezioni Di Musica" podcast and downloaded a backlog of them for listening.

BOOKS
Still reading the Hardy Boys, I have an absolute ton of these to get through. This week it is "La Casa Sulla Scogliera". I think after I complete this one I might take a break and try something different. The Hardy Boys series has been a big help to me though because it is closer to the 98% extensive reading level which Professor Alexander Arguelles spoke about recently.

Conclusion

rdearman wrote:

the target for next Thursday is 29.6 in both books, this is 105 pages in French, and 305 pages in Italian.

Well that didn't work out so well, although I came very close in French to my mini-challenge target. If I'd looked at the stats I probably would have read another 5 pages to hit the target. I'm going to post a summary of what I've done to the SC Update thread for those people who haven't been masochist enough to read here each week. Thanks for reading!

Good luck to everyone in the super challenge, and anyone learning a language.
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rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4995 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 77 of 158
30 October 2014 at 2:04pm | IP Logged 
--- Weekly Update ---
I'm down to a single digit failure in Italian after a burst of activity, and I'm at the point where I think I could crawl ahead into the positive numbers soon. I have done more work with films/audio books this week so those numbers are creeping up as well. I'm going to struggle in the next month because I've got a lot going on in November, not just with language learning (Super Challenge & 6 Week Challenge) and life in general, but some projects like NanoWriMo and a couple of other book related activities. I will perhaps have to give up that sleeping thing.


--- SC Statistics ---
French : 32.0 books : 67.7 films
Italian : 28.8 books : 69.3 films

Reading Averages Change
French: 1.134 books per week --> 1.111 books per week
Italian: 1.007 books per week --> 1.066 books per week

At my current rate I will fail in French by 2.22 books and fail in Italian by 6.13 books.

French
I been listening to an audio book called "L'Empire Des Loup" I struggle to understand a lot of it without the visual clues you get from TV or film. I've watched the first episode of a series called "Hero Corp" a couple of times. I'm trying to basically "watch intensively" and try to understand every word of the dialogue. It seems like a great series and I really wish I could use subs2srs for this series, but sadly there are zero subtitles to be found. If I could find the French ones I could do the English ones myself, but alas it isn't to be.

FILMS
"Hero Corp"
"L'Empire Des Loup" (link to book not audio book)

BOOKS
I'm now on the third and final physical book of Le Fléau but I haven't read any of it yet. I decided to take a break and read a Petit Nicolas book instead. I completed that today so I'll most likely return to complete Le Fléau and say goodbye to Mr S. King's writing after I'm done with this book. I still have 2-3 of his books to read, but like all Stephen King books they are monumental in size so I'll look for something smaller next time.

Books I am reading are:
"Le Fléau" - Stephen King
"Les secrets du Petit Nicolas" - Sempe-Goscinny.

Italian
Completed "la casa sulla scogliera" which as Hardy Boys books go was quite a thick one. I stopped after that and concentrated on French. I have to do a lot of switching to keep both languages going at the same rate. I've been listening to the "Lezioni Di Musica" podcast from Radio 3 Italy and I have to say it is very interesting. This week I was listening to them speaking about an American composer. As an American I was a little surprised because I hadn't known we had any, I always assumed they were all German, Austrian or Italian. Anyway the composers name was Charles Ives and he is considered one of the "Great Composers".

FILMS
"Lezioni Di Musica" podcast

BOOKS
"la casa sulla scogliera" - Frank Dixon (Hardy Boys Series)

Conclusion
I am very happy with my progress this week and the fact that I've almost managed to "level up" my book reading. I know November will be a struggle but I'll have to keep going. Learning something I didn't know, e.g. Charles Ives, because I've learned a foreign language is really cool and I think I might try to find some non-fiction books in French or Italian on some subject or other. Non fiction might be a bit of a welcome break.

Good luck to everyone in the super challenge, and anyone learning a language.
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rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4995 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 78 of 158
06 November 2014 at 3:39pm | IP Logged 
--- Weekly Update ---
Not a lot of time spent on languages this week, I've been very busy and I think November is going to be shot away. So this is just a quick update with stats. I've been reading one or two pages each say, but nothing interesting. I started reading Tarzan in French this week. I've gotten back into Engrenages (Spirals) and so I've pumped up the Film section fairly well. Got another star! But reading has fallen behind again. But I have a 100% consistency rating, I've done something every week of the challenge.

--- SC Statistics ---
French : 32.0 books : 75 films
Italian : 28.8 books : 69.5 films

Reading Averages Change
French: 1.111 books per week --> 1.142 books per week
Italian: 1.066 books per week --> 1.028 books per week

At my current rate I will succeed in French with 100 books and fail in Italian by 9.48 books. (Note my calculations last week were not correct!)

Good luck to everyone in the super challenge, and anyone learning a language.
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sctroyenne
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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739 posts - 1312 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish, Irish

 
 Message 79 of 158
06 November 2014 at 5:27pm | IP Logged 
As for comedic series, I've had more than one French person mention Scènes de
ménages
though I haven't watched enough of it to tell whether or not I like it. You
can also look into French comedians. There's stand up, of course, as well as sketch
comedy such as by Les Inconnus (a major classic). Speaking of stand up, comedian
Jamel Debbouze had a comedic series set in a hospital called H. I'm not a fan of
his so I've never watched the series but it might be good (I believe it was fairly
popular when it aired).
2 persons have voted this message useful



rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4995 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 80 of 158
06 November 2014 at 7:04pm | IP Logged 
sctroyenne wrote:
As for comedic series, I've had more than one French person mention Scènes de
ménages
though I haven't watched enough of it to tell whether or not I like it. You
can also look into French comedians. There's stand up, of course, as well as sketch
comedy such as by Les Inconnus (a major classic). Speaking of stand up, comedian
Jamel Debbouze had a comedic series set in a hospital called H. I'm not a fan of
his so I've never watched the series but it might be good (I believe it was fairly
popular when it aired).


Cool! Thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can dig some of those up on YouTube.


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