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Rdearman Super Challenge Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4365 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 41 of 158 24 July 2014 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, I just had a look at the Foyles website and it looks absolutely incredible. They
have so many language books! Really expensive language books, but lots of them! I am going to London in a couple of weeks so I am definitely going to try and find it :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5018 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 42 of 158 25 July 2014 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||
Yeah Foyles is a really amazing place. The coffee shop is good too! I love the description of shelf space in their advertisements (see below). Also they have some good Foreign language DVD's, although Croatian might be a stretch... The new Foyles flagship at 107 Charing Cross Road houses a range of over 200,000 different titles on four miles (6.5km) of shelves - the equivalent of lining one bank of the Thames with books from Battersea Power Station to the Tower of London. With 37,000 square feet of retail space, spread across eight alternating foot-plates over four floors, it is the largest bookshop to have opened in the UK so far this century. Alongside books, we have a wide range of gifts and stationery, magazines, printed music, classical music CDs and Classic and World DVDs as well as Ray's Jazz, Grant & Cutler Foreign Languages, a Cafe and an Auditorium. An impressive full height central atrium and large windows fill the space with natural light, while the layout allows for easy navigation and the serendipitous discovery of new books. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4691 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 43 of 158 25 July 2014 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I love Foyles and I try to get there when I go down to London. They have a good selection of classical Greek, and better Hindi resources than I've seen anywhere else. Blackwell's in Oxford is another bookshop I love, with a very impressive language section, but just not quite as good as Foyles. My favourite Foyles purchase was Harry Potter in Ancient Greek. They were obviously trying to get rid of them, and were selling them for 1 pound (in hardcover!) so I bought two of them.
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| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5018 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 44 of 158 31 July 2014 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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--- Weekly Update ---
I've been on holiday (vacation) this week and fully expected to make huge headway in the SC. But... er... not so much. I did a day trip to Oxford to Blackwells books store and got a haul of Mandarin graded readers and a couple of books in English. I zipped through both English books in a day, sure which I read that fast in French & Italian. I've also discovered if I want to do the Moses McCormick talk to strangers method, then Bicester Village is the place to be, there were LITERALLY bus loads of Chinese people speaking Mandarin. Also had an encounter with 4 Italian tourists in a restaurant in Oxford. I didn't speak to them, but sat at the next table. The four of them obviously assumed that they were the only ones who could speak Italian. I think they suspected me though when I grinned at a joke they made about the waiters hair, and my daughter asked me what they said. So the lesson is, never assume when in a foreign country that nobody understands you. --- SC Statistics --- French : 18 books : 54.3 films Italian : 10.2 books : 54.8 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.238 books per week --> 1.285 books per week (slight increase) Italian: 0.730 books per week --> 0.728 books per week (slight decrease) So at my current rate I will be successful in French with 113.14 books (Yay!) and fail in Italian by 35.88 books (sigh). French I didn't watch any films in French this week, I'm ahead of schedule and wanted to catch up with the Italian. FILMS None BOOKS I completed the first book (physical) of "Le Fléau". The french version of "The Stand" aka "Le Flèau" is broken up into 3 physical books. I'm also reading "Le rècrès du petit Nicolas" concurrently. Books I am reading are: "Le Fléau" - Stephen King "Le rècrès du petit Nicolas" - Sempè-Goscinny Italian Still watching "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore", but I've slowed down dramatically. I've watched Inspector Montalbano which is on BBC Four at the moment on Saturdays. I've seen this season before, but I do like it. It averages about 2 hours, so clocks up the SC time nicely. I've started a contemporary novel in Italian which is probably a little easier than the Roald Dahl kids books I've been reading. Although my friend in Rome told me this is a very funny book, I'm not laughing. I can see the humour, but because I have to look so much up and think about the words, it is like having someone explain a joke to you. Perhaps one day ... FILMS "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" "Inspector Montalbano" BOOKS Books I am reading are: "Io Sono Leggenda" "Doppio Misto" - Claudio Bisio & Sandra Bonzi "Il libraio che imbrogliò l'Inghilterra" - Roald Dahl (completed) Conclusion All the stuff I was going to accomplish in my "Staycation" is not getting done. I've overestimated the amount of effort I'm willing to put into the SC while on holiday. I also underestimated the amount of stuff on my "honey-do" list. I will need to get a tighter rein on my schedule and start blocking time in my calendar in order to sort bring everything up to par. Especially when I stupidly add Mandarin into the mix. 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 5018 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 45 of 158 07 August 2014 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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--- Weekly Update ---
My holiday (vacation) ended on Tuesday and I have to say I didn't get much done. Need to get back on track. --- SC Statistics --- French : 18.5 books : 55.4 films Italian : 10.8 books : 59.3 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.285 books per week --> 1.233 books per week (slight decrease) Italian: 0.728 books per week --> 0.720 books per week (slight decrease) So at my current rate I will be successful in French with 109.74 books and fail in Italian by 35.92 books (sigh). French I didn't watch any films in French this week, just listed to a podcast. I've caught up with Italian now so I think I'll start watching "The Returned". FILMS "les lundis de l'histoire" BOOKS Reading same two books. Books I am reading are: "Le Fléau" - Stephen King "Le rècrès du petit Nicolas" - Sempè-Goscinny Italian Final episode of "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" tonight, which will take me to 60 films, then I need to find another series to watch. I've watched Inspector Montalbano on BBC Four. Still reading the same books, although the LWT book (Io Sono Leggenda) I slowed (read stopped) this week because I've not been near a computer. FILMS "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" "Inspector Montalbano" BOOKS Books I am reading are: "Io Sono Leggenda" "Doppio Misto" - Claudio Bisio & Sandra Bonzi Conclusion I'm on the downhill slide with films so I'm going to be filling my commute time with Mandarin soon. I need block off more time to read, so I'm actually starting to block of time in my calendar for reading at night. I've decided to start a separate log for the Mandarin, since that has nothing to do with the SC, and I'll not bother mentioning it here anymore. 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 5018 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 46 of 158 14 August 2014 at 11:52am | IP Logged | ||
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--- Weekly Update ---
I've started to learn Mandarin and I've shifted most of my film watching time over to listening to Pimsleur. Because I've only got about 40 films per language and 72 weeks to go to the end of the challenge I am planning on just cruising to the end by watching two films per week. I've managed to get some more books more appropriate to my level and I'm going to start them soon. Appropriate to my level means young adult books converted from English into French or Italian. [--- SC Statistics --- French : 19.3 books : 58.1 films Italian : 12 books : 60 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.233 books per week --> 1.206 books per week (slight decrease) Italian: 0.720 books per week --> 0.750 books per week (slight increase) So at my current rate I will be successful in French with 106.15 books and fail in Italian by 34 books. But I'm narrowing the gap in Italian. French I start watching "The Returned" on netflix but for some strange reason only 1/3 of the subtitles show. This isn't really a problem but it is annoying that the parts that don't show seem to be the only ones I don't know the words for already. Of course the subtitles for "How are you?", "Hello", etc work perfectly, but things like "Why didn't you report the boy missing? Do you know the colour of his eyes." I had to work out myself. FILMS "The Returned" - TV Series "Bambou" - Film about a couple who get a dog and the husband winds up taking care of the dog, the wife is off playing piano and travelling Europe, etc. Quite funny and worth watching. BOOKS Reading only one book now in French which is "Le Fléau" by Stephen King, but I'm now on the second volume (a three volume set) and working away. Books I am reading are: "Le Fléau" - Stephen King Italian Inspector Montalbano on BBC Four each Saturday will keep me going with movies for awhile. Completed "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" last week. Hoping to complete "Doppio Misto" this week, then I've got 4-5 Hardy Boys mysteries in Italian. They look to be much more comprehensible for me. FILMS "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" "Inspector Montalbano" BOOKS Books I am reading are: "Io Sono Leggenda" "Doppio Misto" - Claudio Bisio & Sandra Bonzi Conclusion Not much change in status. Slowly plugging away at the SC and I'm hoping that moving on to the Hardy Boys will speed up my Italian reading to the same speed as French. Realistically I need to make up 1,700 pages in Italian in order not to fail. There are ~500 days left of the challenge so if I can do an extra 3.5 pages per day in Italian I should complete the entire challenge in both languages successfully! 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 5018 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 47 of 158 21 August 2014 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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--- Weekly Update ---
I did another test of my reading speed in both Italian and French this week and I'm happy to report I have doubled my reading speed in both. This means given the statistics below, I am only spending 1/2 the time reading I was before. This seems accurate since life, the universe, and everything seem to be against my reading anything. It hasn't helped that I cheated and read two books in English last week, started Mandarin, and RadioClaire trying to derail/tempt me with Esperanto books and CD's. (I put Esperanto on the hit list... just not right now!) --- SC Statistics --- French : 20.3 books : 59.1 films Italian : 12.6 books : 61 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.206 books per week --> 1.194 books per week (slight decrease) Italian: 0.750 books per week --> 0.741 books per week (slight decrease) So at my current rate I will be successful in French with 105.08 books and fail in Italian by 34.77 books. French I watched about 1/2 of a French dubbed animé cartoon this week called "Cowboy Bebop". Gotta say that is isn't really my thing and I could only take about 50 minutes of it. Dragged on for another hour and a bit, but I didn't watch it. I spend a pleasant hour or so listening to Les Lundis de l’histoire podcast. FILMS "Cowboy Bebop" "Les Lundis de l’histoire" BOOKS Reading only one book now in French which is "Le Fléau" by Stephen King, but I'm now on the second volume (a three volume set) and working away. Because of the increase in my reading speed in French I am planning to power through this book by doubling the time I spend reading. Books I am reading are: "Le Fléau" - Stephen King Italian Inspector Montalbano on BBC Four each Saturday will keep me going with movies for awhile. Still reading "Doppio Misto" this week, and I need to dedicate some more time to reading. I dip in and out of the LWT and read a few pages of "Io Sono Leggenda" each week. Because there is a lot of blue words in LWT (even though I know or can guess them) I still go through the exercise of defining them which is the time consuming part. It is easier to just underline a word in a real book. FILMS "Tutti Pazzi Per Amore" "Inspector Montalbano" BOOKS "Io Sono Leggenda" "Doppio Misto" - Claudio Bisio & Sandra Bonzi Conclusion I'm not being as productive as I need to be in order complete the challenge! I keep looking at my schedule and I just cannot seem to find time to read without causing disruption to other people. On a positive note, my reading is faster, my reading comprehension is better, my vocabulary larger and to top it off at my last lesson my tutor said my French has improved a lot. So while my perception of this week is that it was a bit of a failure, the over all progression is great. It seems like an accumulation just like a snowball rolling down a mountain becoming (hopefully soon) an avalanche. Good luck to everyone in the super challenge, and anyone learning a language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4365 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 48 of 158 21 August 2014 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know who RadioclaIre is but she seems to be giving me a bad name :D
Congratulations on doubling your reading speed, that's fantastic. I have a similar feeling but about films re disruption; I have a maximum of four non-sleeping hours at home on a weekday, some of which are necessarily taken up by eating and doing Esperanto work, so if I choose to spend the remainder with my headphones in listening to a Croatian film, I feel like I'm being antisocial. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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