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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 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 105 of 158 17 January 2015 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I joined into the TAC thing for French and Italian, I don't think I would be able to do anything BUT read TAC team logs. So I gave that a miss, since the Super Challenge is already kicking my backside!
I haven't toggled to watch anything, even my own logs for replies. I spend enough time here that I see most of the stuff anyway. Also the Mandarin on Monday thing is more a a guideline than a rule... :) I've not really got much to say there, I don't really do any native material yet, and I'm sure people would quickly get sick of reading, "Listened to Pimsleur again this week". This log I write in more, because I use native stuff more, and I have more to share. Things other people might like to read or watch. Edit: @Radioclare - Have I mentioned before Blackwells bookstore in Oxford? I know you went to Foyles in London, but I went to Oxford recently and Blackwells has a very good language section, (1/2 a floor actually) were I picked up a couple of graded readers for Mandarin. Saw a lot of mainstream language books there, French, German, etc, don't remember seeing your Serbian stuff but they probably did. Edited by rdearman on 17 January 2015 at 7:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4393 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 106 of 158 17 January 2015 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Blackwells sounds interesting :) I will definitely look it up if I ever have chance to go
to Oxford. My sister has recently moved to Cambridge and I am thinking that that must surely be a town with good bookshops too, though I haven't found them yet! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4719 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 107 of 158 17 January 2015 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Blackwells in Oxford is actually my favourite bookshop in the world. Their language section is definitely put to shame by Foyle's, especially in their new building, but that's not the only kind of books I buy.
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| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 108 of 158 18 January 2015 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, Blackwells in Oxford has an ambiance other places can't match. I used to spend a small fortune in the basement there buying computer programming books. I've even gotten my daughter obsessed with going there (after we return from Bicester outlet village of course). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 109 of 158 22 January 2015 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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NOTE TO Radioclare: It's Thursday. :) --- Weekly Update --- I've concentrated on reading this week, but reading in Italian mostly. I'm trying to drag the numbers up in Italian to be comparable to French. So I'm just keeping the French ticking over by trying to read 50-75 pages a week. In Italian I'm working on pulling those numbers right up. I've parked the TV for a little while, because for me completing the rest of the film portion in Italian should be a doddle. I have had an epiphany with regards to my reading, the more I do it the faster I read. Now I don't mean in the sense of the quantity of reading, but rather the amount of consecutive minutes and hours. Previously I've been catching 10-20 minutes here and there, but this week when I've sat down and told myself I'm going to read this book in Italian from 7pm until 10pm, well the last hour my reading speed is 1.5-2.0 times faster than the first hour. This is a fairly obvious conclusion if you've ever read anything about "flow" RE: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi which I have read a lot about. But for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that I was doing myself a disservice by not spending more consecutive time reading. So while I've probably only read for 3 of the 7 days this week, I got a lot more done. Changing books has helped tremendously also. --- SC Statistics --- French : 40.3 books : 102.8 films Italian : 36.2 books : 76.6 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.023 books per week --> 1.033 books per week Italian: 0.857 books per week --> 0.928 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 90.93 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 81.68 - French - I've discovered that BBC 4 are showing the fifth series of Engrenages (Spirals). YES! I love that show. So I'm still racking up the French films in the super challenge, but now it isn't because I need to watch them but because I want to watch them. This is a subtle but wonderful difference and I feel much better about it. I'm reading "The Flèau" by Stephen King still, but on the last book of the last book. I'm probably complete it next week or the week after and then I need to find myself another French book to read. But I am a little spoilt for choice in French, because I've got tons of them laying about. - Italian - I have dropped the Andre Norton book, it is just to hard. Strangely I know the words but they just don't seem to go together in my head as complete sentences/thoughts. I've found two books of a series by Alexander McCall Smith, which I really liked in English. The two books I have in Italian, aren't ones which I've read previously in English, but I know the subject and the authors style so this book I'm flying through! It is called "Morale e belle ragazze" and it is part of the Mrs Ramotswe series (The Number One Ladies Detective Agency) and is the 3rd in the series. I've read the first 2 in English. The series is about a woman in Botswana who opens an detective agency. It is a great series, not full of death and mystery, but some really wonderful characters and the setting is unusual. I highly recommend it, and the Italian translation is very good. I have been scrounging local charity shops and found these two books on the shelf. There are a lot of Italians where I live so sometimes I can find a treasure. --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 110 of 158 29 January 2015 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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--- Weekly Update ---
Not a bad week. I've kept up the momentum in both French and Italian reading and there has been an increase in my average per week for both of them. I'm happy with this because I'm approaching an average that will get me over the 100 book mark in both languages. At the moment I'm trailing behind, but only by a few books. I'm going to try to get myself back on target this week or next with the reading. Ideally I would like to do a burst of activity which will get me to the point where I only need to read one book per language per week. I'm close to that, at the moment I need to average 1.193 books per week in French and 1.277 books per week in Italian to hit the target. --- SC Statistics --- French : 42.7 books : 106.8 films Italian : 38.7 books : 77.1 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.033 books per week --> 1.067 books per week Italian: 0.928 books per week --> 0.967 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 93.94 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 85.14 - French - Although I have already hit my 100 films in French, I keep watching French TV series. The BBC is broadcasting the 5th season of Engrenage which I'm hooked on, and so I do 2 hours on a Saturday with that, and Amazon finally managed to deliver my first season boxed set of Hero Corp, so I did two days of binge watching. For my reading I'm about halfway through the last book of "Le Flèau", and because of my current push on reading I'm hoping to get that done this week and move on to something else. (Which I'm sure everyone who has ever read this log is happy I'll finally stop mentioning that bloody book!) - Italian - I've been watching "The Hobbit" in Italian. I normally only dip in and out for 15-30 minutes mostly because when I've had time I was cheating with French. But reading in Italian has been going well. The books by Alexander McCall Smith, about the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series featuring Precious Ramotswe has been really good. I've managed to find another book to read in the series after I complete the one I'm on now called L'ora del tè. Also the book-store in the link seems to ship to the UK, so I might try and buy some of the others. I'm planning on checking Amazon for an Italian kindle version first however, because it would be quicker and easier for me. --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 111 of 158 05 February 2015 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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--- Weekly Update ---
This year is stacking up to be a very bad year for me and everytime I turn around another bad thing happens. So, I've just been trying to remember Winston Churchills quote: "If you're going through hell, keep going". Anyway, personal issues aside, this week wasn't very productive for me, but I did manage to read a little bit in both Italian and French and kept my streak going. Hopefully I'll carve out some time for the SC later this week. My weekly average in Italian is increasing, mostly due to finding a book & author I like and is relatively easy for me. --- SC Statistics --- French : 42.8 books : 109.0 films Italian : 39.8 books : 77.6 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.067 books per week --> 1.043 books per week Italian: 0.967 books per week --> 0.970 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 91.86 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 85.42 --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 112 of 158 12 February 2015 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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--- Weekly Update ---
I managed to commit some time to reading this week and a little bit of film watching in French. My reading rate is increasing so I'm really happy about that. I've discovered a plugin for FBReader a free open source book reader which will use the google voice to read the book to you. The computer voice is a little annoying, but because it reads at a pace slightly faster than I normally read it forces me to read faster. Previous attempts to use this facility didn't work for me, because I couldn't keep up with the computer reading. Now however I can keep up with the plugin with only the occasional pause to grab a word or sentence and translate it. I haven't actually tried this with French yet, since I'm only about 100 pages from being done with "Le Flèau" (a physical paperback book). I may switch and read the next French book on the tablet as well. I don't anticipate any lag when the plugin reads French since my French reading is at a much faster pace than Italian. Still watching Engrenage (Spirals) on BBC4 and adding to my French films which is already over 100. Italian is more problematic because I haven't really found anything which has sparked my interest. I looked at all the detective shows in Italian and wasn't really impressed. I don't want to watch "Tutti Pazzi per Amore" for the 3rd time. So I'm going to do some research and ask all my Italian friends for some more recommendations. I've only 23 films to watch in Italian to complete that portion so one good TV series would put me over the top. --- SC Statistics --- French : 44.6 books : 110.3 films Italian : 41.1 books : 77.6 films Reading Averages Change French: 1.043 books per week --> 1.061 books per week Italian: 0.970 books per week --> 0.978 books per week The number of French books at the end of challenge at current rate: 93.44 The number of Italian books at the end of challenge at current rate: 86.11 The statistics for Italian are better and I'm edging closer to finally averaging 1+ book per week in Italian. :) --- Good luck everyone with your language learning and your own challenges. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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