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Super Challenge Update thread 2014-15

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198 messages over 25 pages: 13 4 5 6 7 ... 2 ... 24 25 Next >>
BOLIO
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4438 days ago

253 posts - 366 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 9 of 198
02 May 2014 at 7:48pm | IP Logged 
Spanish:

2.5 hrs film/TV; Gremlins dubbed in Spanish and one episode of Stargate SG1.

18 Pages of reading

Right now I am doing Intensive reading until I finish the Movie portion of the challlenge and then I will conquer the extensive reading.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6377 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 10 of 198
03 May 2014 at 5:50am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
Serpent?

I totally read that as a nudge to post something too :D Well, today (already yesterday) I was supposed to see Finntroll live, that's a Finnish band singing in Swedish. It was a festival and their gig was cancelled :'( But since the rest of it wasn't, I couldn't get a refund for my ticket. But I also wasn't particularly interested in any other bands. So I did go there, with my e-book :D Reading and breathing fresh air totally made it more acceptable :D And most of the music wasn't so bad - it was just in Russian. I thought of how many Russian learners from HTLAL would swap gladly :D

Edited by Serpent on 03 May 2014 at 5:52am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5546 days ago

2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 11 of 198
03 May 2014 at 6:02am | IP Logged 
Sadface. Finntroll are so awesome! I feel with you.
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Mrs. Dalloway
Triglot
Groupie
Italy
Joined 4749 days ago

70 posts - 95 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, Russian
Studies: GermanA2, French, Danish

 
 Message 12 of 198
03 May 2014 at 7:39am | IP Logged 
Couldn't sleep, so I started watching old Soviet cartoons
Трое из Простоквашино
Каникулы в Простоквашино
Зима в Простоквашино
Бобик в гостях у Барбоса
Приключения Васи Куролесова

The Prostokvashino three are so cute! But anyways, in total it amounted to 0.9 of a film,
apparently :)
1 person has voted this message useful



milesaway
Triglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4111 days ago

134 posts - 181 votes 
Speaks: French, English*, Russian
Studies: Finnish, Sign Language

 
 Message 13 of 198
03 May 2014 at 9:46pm | IP Logged 
I've been slogging through a Russian book for the past 3 weeks, whereas most books are
done within a week, but I finally finished it this morning, so I'm glad for that.

Books 1 and 2. Сумеречный Взгляд (Дин Кунц) Twilight Eyes, Dean Koontz. Pages 472-572 (I
read up to 472 in April, then from May 1st to today, finished it.)
Books 3 and 4. Робинсон Крусо (Robinson Crusoe) Pages 5-108. It's a slightly simplified
version I believe, in a series called "Школьная Библиотека". It's certainly not super
easy, but it's also not that difficult.

I had a lot of time to read today, as I took a day trip to Novgorod, which was a 3.5 hour
train ride there (on an elektrichka...my bum is still numb), and a 3.5 hour bus ride
back.
3 persons have voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5114 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 14 of 198
05 May 2014 at 12:51am | IP Logged 
FILMS
1. Robin Hood (Disney)

New material

2. The Jungle book
3. The Jungle book 2
4. Garfield
5. The Little Mermaid
6 - The little Mermaid 2

I have not seen as many Disney movies in such a short time in my life, but they are absolutely brilliant for
learning, since the language is very clear. I enjoyed Garfield, but it was extremely hard to follow. Some of
them have a type of dubbing which I loathe, though: a man reading the entire dialogue in Russian, while you
can hear part of the English dialogue underneath.


BOOKS

1. Agatha Christie: Appointment with death - first 50 pages.

New material
2. Agatha Christie: Appointment with death - next 50 pages.

I really like the book, and it is nice to see how many more new words I learn when I read this much :-)
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5114 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 15 of 198
05 May 2014 at 1:02am | IP Logged 
By the way I am having increasing trouble downloading pages, and since I am afraid that we may have
another incident, I have opened an update thread also at the polydog forum.

Super Challenge updates
Polydog forum


This is an option for those who would rather be safe than sorry. If you prefer to use a personal log elsewhere,
that is fine, and if there is a demand for it I can open up an update thread at Fluent in 3 months too. I do not
care where you have the back up, but I do recommend that you have one. I absolutely adore HTLAL and as
long as it functions it will be my primary forum, but I would hate to lose my updates.
2 persons have voted this message useful



kanewai
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/kanewai
Joined 4669 days ago

1386 posts - 3054 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 16 of 198
07 May 2014 at 4:04am | IP Logged 
I'm so glad we've started!

I just came back from 2+ weeks in Italy and France, and I have to let you all know: the
Super Challenge works wonders. I got a lot of nice comments on my French, and most of
my "studying" the last couple years has been Super Challenge I related. I was worried
that this wouldn't cross over into real-world skills, but it does. It really does.

I also had a lot of time to read on the plane, and spent a couple real lazy days in
Provence sitting in cafes and reading my books.

French

Pre-challenge reading

Michel Tournier. Vendredi ou les limbes du pacifique. 1967. This is a re-
imagining of the Robinson Crusoe story. It's a great mix of adventure and philosophy,
and was surprisingly poignant and haunting at the end. Difficulty = medium. The writing
isn't complicated, but you should be comfortable with the subjunctive and simple past
to enjoy it. Highly recommended.

Marcel Proust. À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. 1919. The narrator hits
puberty in the second book of À la recherche du temps perdu. There's more of a story
here than in the first book, but a bit less of the ecstatically beautiful writing too.
I'd recommend that everyone try Proust at some point in the challenge, but not at the
beginning,and be warned: He is a challenge, and possibly a bit insane. I think
he spent five pages describing a ride in an elevator.

Hergé. L'Île Noire (Les aventures de Tintin). 1938. Tintin is great. Definitely
try to read some for the Challenge!

Challenge Reading. Current: 4.1 books

Jean Giono. Colline. 1929. A wonderful short novel about the inhabitants of an
isolated Provence village of four houses. The eldest resident lays dying, and the
others start noticing strange and disturbing omens in the land. Highly recommended,
withsimple and beautiful writing. Would be great for a beginner.

Émile Zola. L'Œuvre. 1886. I'm currently 1/3 of the way through this story about
Bohemian artists in Paris and their rebellion against the bourgeois status quo. The
lead is based on Cézanne, who was so angry at the book that he broke off his friendship
with Zola. I'm enjoying it so far, though it's Zola, so I know that horrible things are
bound to happen before the novel is finished.

Italian

I'm not ready to read independently yet in Italian. I'm at lesson 40 with Assimil,
and I think in a few more weeks I might be ready for my first independent book.

In the meantime, I picked up a copy of Italo Calvino's Le città invisibili. It's
a novel / prose poem where Marco Polo tells Kublai Khan about all the wonderful and
fantastic cities in his empire. I loved this book in English, and still have my beat up
copy. I'll be reading this "Assimil style" - reading an English paragraph, then the
Italian, and so on.

After a few more weeks with Assimil I think I'll be ready for some easy reading, maybe
Percy Jackson, or one of Hugo Pratt's graphic novels.

French Recommendations

BAnna - great work on the wiki page! I tried to add some of my favorite books and
films there, but I'm a novice at wiki writing and was just mucking it all up.

In the meantime, here are my favorites from SC-I. These were the easier authors, so
would be good ones to start with:

Alain-Fournier. Le Grand Meaulnes.   A nice coming of age story.
André Gide's novellas. Explorations of freedom, sensuality, and morality.
Guy de Maupassant's short stories
Fred Vargas mysteries
Boris Vian. L'écume des jours. Love, jazz, and sadness in post-war Paris.




               

Edited by kanewai on 07 May 2014 at 4:06am



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