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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 5023 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 33 of 158 10 July 2014 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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--- Weekly Update --- This week I revisited the language diagnostic site to reevaluate my French level. If you are a regular reader you might rememeber this:
After taking the test again I can answer one of the questions I've had before, yes it does seem to vary the things to read. I had to read ~8 blocks of text and anwser various questions over the 2 hours it took me to take the test and only one of the blocks of text was one I remembered from before. The good news is the Super Challenge has caused an improvement in my reading levels. I was a 1+ before and now I've scored a 2 (ILR Proficency Level), which is equal to B2 in the CEFR. I got Content 66.67%, Linguistic 45.45% in this next level. I'm really, really, really chuffed about this result and it just shows how useful the Super Challenge is. It is unfortunate I didn't have a comprehensive test like this I could take for Listening Comprehension, or for Italian.
I sent this off to my French language exchange partner and a quick "diff" of the two versions shows I'm not very good with listening comprehinsion. I managed to get about 40% of the words correct. The problem was a lot of endings being dropped by French speakers, and mixing in a few place names or proper nouns in which I mistook for words. So I'm going to have to do some more "intensive" listening, perhaps with an audio book or something else I have the transcript for. I hit another star watching films, but need to seriously knuckle down and read! --- SC Statistics --- French : 12 books : 51.8 films Italian : 7.6 books : 37.8 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.150 books per week --> 1.09 books per week (slight fall) Italian: 0.65 books per week --> 0.69 books per week (slight increase) So at my current rate I will fail in Italian by 40 books, and fail in French by 5 books! French Although I will fail in French at my current reading rate, this is a function of how much time I have to read. I have tested the speed at which I read and discovered I have increased a little. Previously it took about 5.5 minutes for me to read a page, now it seems I can get through a page in 4.5 minutes. This I believe is down to an incresed amount of word recognition, I'm coming across a lot of words which have been popping up in ANKI over the last two weeks. FILMS I've now completed all of "Mafioso - Le Clan" seasons 1,2,3, and 4. Series 5 hasn't been released yet so time to move on to something else. I don't know what to watch next. However I think I'm going to watch an English/American series dubbed to French. Possibly "Band of Brothers" or "Big Bang Theory". BOOKS I started another Petit Nicolas book, and it is easier to read. In fact this is what prompted me to retake the reading comprehension test again after only 2 months. This book was so much easier to understand. Books I am reading are: "Le Fléau" - Stephen King "Les vacances du Petit Nicolas" - Sempe-Goscinny. Italian Still reading a Roald Dahl "Il GGG" (The big friendly giant), but almost at the end. I've a couple more kids books lined up from Mr Dahl in Italian. I'm tempted to pop some Common Italian in the ANKI to assist with reading Italian as well, but probably don't have time for that. FILMS "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" should be on the 3rd and final season by Friday. BOOKS I have parked "La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia" for the week and concnetrated on the Dahl books. Reading "Io Sono Leggenda" (i am legend) on LWT, and it is slow going, but I plug a few more pages into the twitter bot each week. Books I am reading are: "La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia" (on hold) "Il GGG" "Io Sono Leggenda" Conclusion I'm a happy camper this week, I've proven to myself the effort is begining to pay off. My reading comprehension is up, my reading speed is up. The only real drawback was the listening comprehension in French. For Italian it isn't so bad since in Italian (unlike French & English) you simply say it the way it is spelled! This means, at least for me, an increase in reading comprehension goes hand in hand with listening comprehension. But French... No. Most of the problem I had in my little listening exercise was words like "dit" which they pronounce "di". Here is a little excerpt of my attempt to transcribe. Where is what I thought he said:
Here is what was actually said:
When I got the corrections back and listened to it again while reading, I was thinking to myself. "That is obvious! How on earth did you get that wrong?" *sigh* Still a very worthwhile exercise to do and I hope to do more like it in the future. I've some questions if you can help? 1) Anyone know a good online (free) test for reading comprehension in Italian? 2) Can anyone suggest other exercises to test/improve my listening comprehension? 3) Anyone have any suggestions for improvements to this log, or my efforts in general? Good luck to everyone in the super challenge, and anyone learning a language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5023 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 34 of 158 17 July 2014 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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--- Weekly Update ---
I've not done as much as I would have liked this week. Tried to concentrate on Italian a little more to bring it up. I've completed the TV series in French and so rather than split my times I've watched Italian. --- SC Statistics --- French : 13.5 books : 52.4 films Italian : 9.2 books : 43.6 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.09 books per week --> 1.125 books per week (slight increase) Italian: 0.69 books per week --> 0.766 books per week (slight increase) So at my current rate I will fail in Italian by 32 books, and fail in French by 1 book. This sounds bad, but I've improved my failure rates, it was 40 & 5. I'm reminded of a quote; "If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate." -- Thomas J. Watson Not exactly relevant, but you get the point. French I've changed the way I read slightly and it seems to help me. Previously I would look up each unknown word as I ran across it, then return to reading. Now I underline the word in pencil, and as long as I've gotten the meaning of the paragraph as a whole I move on. When I complete a page or two, I go back and look-up all the underlined words at the same time. The only exceptions are; when this word seems key and I need it to understand or when the same unknown word has popped up 2-3 times on the page already. FILMS I've not watched any films in French this week, although I have listened to some podcasts of "les lundis de l'histoire". BOOKS I completed my Petit Nicolas book and starting a new one today. "Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis" Books I am reading are: "Le Fléau" - Stephen King "Les vacances du Petit Nicolas" - Sempe-Goscinny. (Complete) "Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis" - Sempe-Goscinny. Italian Completed Roald Dahl, "Il GGG" (The big friendly giant). Today I'll start "Il vicario cari voi" a very short story, and then "Il libraio che imbrogliò l'Inghilterra". With luck I should complete the 3rd series of "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore". FILMS "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore". BOOKS I have parked "La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia" so I'm taking it off the list, I tweeted up the pages I'd gotten to before parking it. Reading "Io Sono Leggenda" (i am legend) on LWT. Books I am reading are: "Io Sono Leggenda" "Il GGG" - Roald Dahl "Il vicario cari voi" - Roald Dahl "Il libraio che imbrogliò l'Inghilterra" - Roald Dahl Conclusion Nothing exciting to report, no leaps in ability, but I do seem to be slowly crawling my way forward. Somewhere previously I'd compared learning a language to moving a mountain with a spoon and bucket. It can be done but it takes a lot of time and effort. Moving into A1/A2 range in a language is quick (fluent in 3 months, etc) but getting into C1/C2 takes a long time and a lot of effort. I've been thinking at what level for me is "good enough", and I don't think I would be happy with anything less than C1 in French & Italian.
So having made the decision to strive for C1, I've got to put more effort into output as well, writing and speaking. I'll going to try and think of some way to do this. Maybe I'll write children stories in French & Italian. Good luck to everyone in the super challenge, and anyone learning a language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3931 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 35 of 158 17 July 2014 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
How did you find that book? I tried to read it in Spanish, but I very quickly got frustrated with all of the malapropisms and forced dialect when the BFG was speaking. I think maybe my Spanish wasn't yet strong enough to figure out what the giant was supposed to be saying. I credit Dahl with a lot of my progress in reading, though! I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator was…meh. But I still liked it, because I was actually able to read it! Ha! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5023 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 36 of 158 17 July 2014 at 3:45pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
That was probably the worst part, the giant's slightly odd speaking, but generally if I couldn't find it in the dictionary I ignored it. I knew those types of words and phrases would be there since I'd read the book in English and whoever did the translation did a good job of handling the odd dialect. Perhaps my Italian is weak enough that I was comfortable ignoring malapropisms and forced dialect. :) I'm also lucky in being one of those people who are NOT perfectionists and for me "near enough is good enough" for most things. I do like his books, I've gotten a couple of them for French also planned for this month. For me translations of English books are easier to read, but I need ween myself off the kid's books soon. For the foreseeable future though, it will probably be an all Dahl summer. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5023 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 37 of 158 24 July 2014 at 11:25am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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--- Weekly Update ---
Lot's of interesting things happened this week. I crashed my car (nobody hurt thankfully) and my daughters birthday. So I was slightly distracted from the SC, not least by all the great advice about learning Mandarin I got on HTLAL. However, after 13 weeks, the SC has now become a habit so there was still progress and I managed to get another star for Italian films. So I'm 50% of the way for films in both French & Italian! YAY Me! --- SC Statistics --- French : 16.1 books : 54.3 films Italian : 9.5 books : 50.4 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.125 books per week --> 1.238 books per week (slight increase) Italian: 0.766 books per week --> 0.730 books per week (slight decrease) So at my current rate I will be successful in French with 108.95 books (Yay!) and fail in Italian by 35.69 books (sigh). French I've watched the first episode of "The Returned" on netflix and I think this will be the series I'll continue in French. You have to wonder why people don't scream the house down when dead people show up? But it seems interesting enough so I'll press on. FILMS I've not watched any films in French this week other than the episode of "The Returned", although I have listened to some podcasts of "les lundis de l'histoire". BOOKS I completed "Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis" and another block of "Le Fléau". I'm going to try to just continue to plod along with "Le Fléau" and bring the Italian up to speed. Books I am reading are: "Le Fléau" - Stephen King Italian Completed Roald Dahl "Il vicario cari voi" a very short story. This was quite difficult because the whole premise of the story is a Priest who has dyslexia and keeps getting words wrong. So it got a bit confusing, and I'd never read it before in English. Started "Il libraio che imbrogliò l'Inghilterra". Still watching "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" I was a little over optimistic about completing the series. FILMS "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore". BOOKS Books I am reading are: "Io Sono Leggenda" "Il libraio che imbrogliò l'Inghilterra" - Roald Dahl Conclusion Well I have nice one week "staycation" (holiday at home) next week. I'm hoping to get some more book time. Really need to bring up the numbers in both languages. Why, oh why, can't I count audio books as books. I'm also taking a trip out to Oxford to my favourite bookstore to get some reading material; probably in Mandarin. The whole Mandarin itch has been affecting me, and I have decided to go ahead and go for it. The plan is to start from the 19th of August and work for 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days which takes me to my birthday. I plan to book a trip to some place Mandarin speaking as a carrot (and a stick). I get the feeling I'm doing something stupid, but hey, there are almost a billion people who speak Mandarin ... how hard can it be? Good luck to everyone in the super challenge, and anyone learning a language. EDIT: I forgot to mention I've now started a new word exercise. I have monolingual dictionaries for both French & Italian. I have begun to open the dictionary (I started at A) and read a word and it's definition. If I don't understand any word in the definition then I look that word up in the same monolingual dictionary, and if I don't understand a word in that definition I look it up. So a lot of recursion through the dictionary. Similar to Iverson's wordlists although I am not trying to memorise the words. Hopefully more words will "stick". Edited by rdearman on 24 July 2014 at 12:57pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4994 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 38 of 158 24 July 2014 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Good to see the Super Challenge progress!
Blackwell's? I visited it when I was in Oxford for a weekend earlier this year and I love that place, I could have spent so much time (and money) in there. The foreign languages section is great, I was impressed to see that it had a good selection of modern literature in French and Italian as well as the usual classics and courses. Contemporary stuff can be quite hard to come by outside of the countries themselves. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4370 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 39 of 158 24 July 2014 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Sounds intriguing - what's it called? I don't live particularly near Oxford but am always prepared to go out of my way for a bookshop that has a more inspiring collection than my local Waterstones. Sadly such bookshops seem to be few and far between in this country! Good luck with the reading :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5023 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 40 of 158 24 July 2014 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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@garyb & @Radioclare
Yep Blackwells bookstore. Blackwell's Oxford 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BQ I love it. But if you are closer to London you can try Foyles bookstore (get off at Piccadilly Station on Central Line) they have an amazing selection, and have only recently moved into the bigger building next door. Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DT There was also a Blackwells in London on the same street but they are relocating somewhere else and I don't know where. My favourite part of Blackwells (Oxford) is the used book section on the 3rd (?) floor. If I lived closer to Oxford I would have a house jammed with books (even more so than already). I remember walking out of there with 10 programming books before and a complete set of Harry Potter in French and I only went in to see if they had any Dr. Seuss books for my kids. (They did, but it was the other section across the street) Another place I like in London is Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR. They have some good Sci-Fi & Fantasy books downstairs. There was a great selection of Anime books in what I assumed was Japanese. Or Skoob, 66 The Brunswick, off Marchmont Street, London, WC1N 1AE. ("books" spelled backwards) is a really good second-hand book store. Or: The French Bookshop 28 Bute Street, South Kensington, London SW7 3EX Finally there is always the "South Bank Book Market" which is just a load of stalls on a Saturday on the South Bank under the bridge. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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